Girls und Panzer- International War Games
by TheMalteseTiger
Summary: After defeating Kuromorimine, Oorai's Sensha-Dou team is given the honor of joining the 10th biennial International War Games. Where they must join forces with the Oorai Boys high school's Heishi-dou and Hikouki-dou teams. As the team adjusts to fighting alongside infantry, they find themselves facing old adversaries and meeting new ones. Can they possibly pull this off?
1. A New Toy

**A New Toy**

It was a warm summer night on the Oorai girl's high school city ship and Miho Nishizumi slept soundly in her bed. Even though it was still night the air was unbelievably warm and so Miho slept wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top while barely being covered by a bed sheet and every window to her apartment was at least half way open.

Miho was suddenly pulled from her deep slumber by a loud ringing. The first action she attempted was to reach over to her alarm clock and hit the snooze button. But it didn't work. She jerked her face up from her pillow and looked around her room to locate her alarm clock. The clock read 12:00 AM and next to it lay her still ringing cell phone, its screen glowing filling the room with a dull radiant light. She checked the caller ID and the name Nakajima was displayed in bold black font. Miho quickly flipped open the phone and answered.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey Miho, it's me Nakajima! Did I wake you?" answered the voice of the commander of Leopon team. Even through her tired haze Miho could hear that the young grease monkey was excited about something.

"It's twelve in the morning! " Miho replied in an obviously sleep deprived and a little annoyed voice.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you are not going to believe what I just found in deep storage!"

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you. You just have to see it to believe it. Can you come down to C deck?"

"Now? Can't this wait till morning Nakajima-san?" Miho replied in a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

"I don't think it can."

"Alright I'll be right over."

"Oh, and Miho-san?"

"Yes?"

"Bring Yukari-san. She's gonna have an epic panzer high!" Nakajima said before hanging up the phone. Miho groaned at the thought of having to walk all the way over to Yukari's house and then all the way down to C deck and finding Nakajima in the maze the ship called its deep storage area. But as if on queue, Yukari fell through the window and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Yukari-san?"

"Apologies Miho-san. The student council told me to tell you that they want to meet in the morning." Yukari spat out very quickly and a little embarrassed.

"So why were you climbing through the window?" Miho asked looking on at her friend with a look of surprise.

"I tried getting buzzed in but nobody was awake so I tried calling but my phone was dead." Yukari answered with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"It's ok. You actually saved me a lot of trouble. Nakajima-san wants to meet us in the deep storage area. She said that she had found something there and to bring you down with me." Miho responded giving Yukari a friendly smile that seemed to ease her anxiety. Seeing this Yukari returned the smile and Miho got up to change in the bathroom.

"So what do you suppose it is?"

"Don't know. She didn't tell me. But considering they also called for you, I would guess it's a tank."

"REALLY! ANOTHER TANK!?" Yukari nearly screamed with joy and excitement.

"Yep. Lets go find out what it is! Shall we?" Miho replied walking out of the bathroom wearing her own school uniform. The two exchanged smiles and nodded to each other as they turned towards the door and walked began to walk into the night.

* * *

The two had been walking for an hour before they reached the long-term storage area deep within the bowls of the ship. As soon as the two walked through the heavy steel door they found themselves n a maze of heavy wooden boxes and crates as well as hundreds of other items that were staked high into the air. The whole room was several acres large and about five stories tall, and it was easy to get lost in as Saori and several members of the schools Sensha-dou team found out earlier in the year.

Hoshino, the gunner of Leopon teams Tiger P, and another member of the schools automotive club greeted the two girls.

"About time you got here." Hoshino said walking up to them in her orange jump pants with the top half of her jump suit tied around her waist showing her white, grease covered undershirt; her . Miho, and Yukari followed Hoshino around the maze for another half hour before they finally met up with the other three members of the automotive club, Nakajima, Tsuchiya, and Suzuki who also made up Leopon team. The group moved behind a corner and turned on a set of construction lights.

Yukari nearly had a seizure when she saw the massive hulk of steel sitting before them. Hidden between two large stacks of storage crates sat the silhouette of an 86 tonne steel monster. It sat almost three meters high, four meters wide, and eleven meters long with four individual sets of tracks and a massive hunk of metal that looked as if someone had cut a giant steel ball and welded it to the front. Left of the machine sat a massive T5E1 105 mm cannon that sported a barrel almost as long as the tank itself, while the Ford GAF V-8 gasoline engine sat on a pair of wooden horses on the machines right. The tank was in almost pristine condition besides some rust spots and the gun and motor being removed, but otherwise it looked to be in running condition. Yukari let out a high-pitched squeal before jumping onto the top of the vehicle

"What is it Yukari-san?" asked Nakajima.

"It's a T28 super heavy tank!" she replied excitedly.

"A what?" everybody said, almost in unison.

"It was designed to punch through the Siegfried line in world war two! Only two were ever built before the war ended."

"Obviously not! Otherwise we're looking at a pretty damn good replica!" said Hoshino, her eyes fixed on the tank.

"Yukari-san, can you give me a rundown?" Miho asked calmly,

"Hai! The steel belt at the front is 305 mm thick, while the gun mantle ads another 300 mm with almost 150 mm of armor behind it, while the lower glacis is 130 mm thick. Each individual track is over 300 mm wide covered by a 100 mm thick skirt. Just above that is about 64 mm of armor but it's fairly heavily sloped. The top of the tank and the rear are both about 50 mm thick. The commander's coupla is 151 mm thick and also heavily sloped."

"Did you say three hundred millimeters at the front!? Our 88 mm on the Tiger P could never penetrate that!" said Tsuchiya in a rather surprised look.

"What about the gun?" asked Hoshino.

"It has a 105 mm T5E1 main gun wit a muzzle velocity of 1,130 meters per second and has a maximum range of 19 kilometers."

"Are you sure this is legal in Sensha-dou?" asked Suzuki

"Technically speaking it is designated as the T28 super heavy tank, so I don't see why not." Yukari replied.

"Can it run?" Miho asked.

"Probably, all we have to do is re-attach the gun and the engine and do a little cosmetic work. But we will have to move it out of here before we start work, and that alone will take all night." Nakajima replied.

"Maybe you should wait till morning and get some rest?" Miho suggested kindly.

"We could but I don't think that one is going to get any sleep." Nakajima said tilting her head towards Yukari who was busy inspecting the gun.

"Hai. I'll leave the decision up to you then. I have to meet with the student council in the morning so I'd better get some sleep. You can help them if you want Yukari-san." Miho said with a sleepy smile on her face.

"Hai!" Yukari yelled sticking her head in the commander's coupla.

"I hope you don't mind me leaving like this." Miho said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. You do what you have to do. We can handle it from here. Besides, from what I heard the student council has some pretty big news. It would have to be to call you in on a Saturday." Nakajima said returning a smile.

"Thank you." Miho replied and the two exchanged a bow and she went back to her room as the rest of the group began the long argues work of moving the 95-ton bulk out of the deep storage area.

End Chapter 1


	2. Save Our Ship!

_Disclaimer: Girls und Panzers is property of Actas._

_Hi guys. I got a lot of favorites from the first chapter, which makes me so happy because this is my first story to ever be posted on an online forum so I appreciate everything. I will be making adjustments to my writing style and adding more to this story. So I tank everyone for your support. I am open to constructive criticism and any advice you can give me to improve my writing style. But if you don't have anything constructive to say or any completely negative comments I ask that you keep them to yourself._

_Also a huge shout out to Jangocommando27 who gave me my first review. Sorry to put you out on the spot like that and if I'm not supposed to or it makes you guys feel uncomfortable then just tell me. But this just makes me feel so great, and he pointed out a huge fact to me that I didn't even see and will do my best to listen to your guys' comments. For those of you who are reading this again. I have completely changed this chapter because I wasn't thinking when I wrote the last one, and it was pointed out that this would be a better plot.__  
_

_Now without further ado, here's Chapter 2!_

* * *

**Save Our School!**

Miho Nishizumi walked into the school doors and strait to the Student Council's office where she was met with the calculating Anzu Kabotani, the head of the student council, and the commander of Turtle Team's Hetzer.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me?" Miho asked a little un-easy, as she stood strait as a pencil in the middle of the room.

"What do you know about Oorai's other school ships?" Anzu asked with a straight look on her face.

"I know one is a Co-ed high school and the other is an all boys school."

"Do you know which disciplines they practice?"

"Oorai Co-ed school practices in Hikouki-dou and Oorai Boy's school trains in Heishi-dou."

"What do you know of their standings?" Anzu asked pressing her fingertips together.

"Oorai Co-ed high school has the third highest ranking team in the country…"

"What about the boy's school?" Anzu asked a cutting off Miho mid sentence.

"Oorai Boy's high school's Heishi-dou team was once ranked number two in the world. They where one of the best athletes in the sport, up until ten years ago, when they lost their standings. What is this for?" Miho asked starting to get puzzled by this interrogation, as it was turning out.

"Like you said, the team use to be the second best in the world and had a shot at becoming the best. Ten years ago their coach, Miyamot Takigawa, passed away and their best practitioners moved on, and their Heishi-dou team never again saw victory. Over the years they began to face similar challenges to the one we faced this year, but it they remained open due to their former glory. Over the past year however, the cutbacks that threatened our school also threatened to destroy theirs.

"Like us they found salvation in past success. They found a strong leader for their Heishi-dou team, and competed to save their school. They even made it to the finals, and were almost granted victory, but were defeated by Tokyo Boy's high school in the final ten minutes of the match." Anzu concluded with a grim look on her face.

"What does that have to do with me?" Miho asked, confused.

"They now face shutdown like we did, but they may have a second chance yet. The International War games. What do you know about it?" Anzu asked.

"It's a biennial competition where schools from around the world compete in Sensha-dou, Hikouki-dou, or Heishi-dou in a series of mock battles. Every year the game is changed and so are the disciplines allowed to compete. In order to compete you have to be extremely prestigious school and have to be invited. From what you say, Oorai Boy's high school is not prestigious enough to be invited. So how would this help them?" Miho asked.

"Although they were not invited, we were." Anzu said.

"So?"

"This year's game is combined arms."

"So we need an infantry team." Miho concluded, finally connecting all the dots.

"Technically we don't have to participate at all. But the student council president from OBHS has asked us for assistance. They want to team up with us to compete in the INWG. I know I've asked a lot from you already, but if you are at all like the person I think you are, you will not let our brothers be brought down. Especially after narrowly escaping a similar fate. But I leave the decision up to you."

Miho paused. More to make it look like she actually put some thought into it than anything else.

"Hai! I will do it!" Miho exclaimed loudly. Anzu smiled confidently, "Great, because I already sent them our reply," she said. Miho was taken back for a moment, but then she cracked a small smile with her friend.

"Now that we've got that over with, I feel it fair to tell you, the captain of the Boy's high school Heishi-dou team is coming over in a few days with his second in command. Along with the co-ed high school's captain and her second in command." Anzu said.

"For what?" Miho asked.

"Mainly formalities, so they get to know who their working with and so do we. They'll be here for a few days and you'll be showing them around the ship."

"Hai. How long will they be staying?"

"Two days. After that, they will return to their schools, then all three schools will meet back on land in about a week to commence training or the IWG."

"Alright. Am I just showing them around then?"

"Pretty much. Just help them get to know the school and the team. We will be hosting a Sensha-dou demonstration on the first day of their visit, so we should get the team prepared."

"Why are they coming here as apposed to us going to them?" Miho asked politely.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Oh and one more thing?" Anzu asked.

"What?"

"Tell Saori-san to restrain herself from any…unnecessary, or otherwise, unprofessional interactions with out visitors. That would be most helpful." Anzu said with a slight tinge of humor to her voice. Miho gave a slight giggle as if it were an inside joke, and nodded, "Will that be all?" she asked.

"Yes thank you. If you can, stop by tomorrow and we can talk strategy for the games." Anzu answered.

"Hai!" Miho smiled and walked out the door to class.


	3. We're Working with Boys!

_Hey Guys! So far I have gotten three reviews which is actually far better than I anticipated, but I want to give a big shout out Severstal for giving me yet another piece of useful information regarding my plot. I know some of you are probably confused as to why Oorai is being threatened with a shutdown again or are trying to tell me a different road to go down that lines up with all the Girls und Panzer stories, But alas I have only seen the Anime OVA and haven't read the Magna simply because I could not find it using the resources at my disposal. _

_But bear in mind also that this is my first published story EVER and I appreciate all the reviews and any constructive criticism, and some people are probably going to point out better ways to execute the plot but since this is my first story I want to take this the way I want to go. _

_You know the old saying: if you work doing something you love, you never work a day in your life. Well I love doing this and reading your reviews so I don't want to start becoming a people pleaser because that would ruin the experience for me. With that being said I am considering redoing chapter two, if I haven't done so already. So If I haven't changed anything by the time this chapter is up than I would love to hear whether or not you guys think it's a good idea and what not._

_The only reason I want to redo chapter two is because I had a case of writers block while writing it and I can completely agree that it could have been way better. So please leave me a review and be honest, but no unconstructive comments. And for Severstal, I'm not calling you out, but you gave me some really good advice so I would like to Personally thank you for that. It's nice to get a fresh pair of eyes reading my work._

* * *

**We're Working with Boys**

Miho Nishizumi and Anzu Kadotani where still sitting in her office when Momo Kawashima, Turtle teams gunner, and Yuzu Koyama, Turtle teams driver, entered the room.

"So what do we know about the teams?" asked Anzu

"We know that they have to be co-ed within each discipline." Momo said with a relatively blank expression on her face.

"We're teaming up with Oorai boy's high school's Heishi-dou and Oorai co-ed high school's Hikouki-dou teams." Yuzu added.

"Saori-san is going to love this." Anzu laughed.

"Is everything okay Miho-san? You look a bit red." Yuzu asked as she noticed Miho was blushing.

"Yes, everything's fine. It's just been a while since I've worked next to boys." Miho said turning a brighter shade of red.

"We're also going to need more tanks." Momo added, taking the focus off Miho.

"The automotive club found an old T28 super heavy last night in deep storage." Miho recalled.

"How'd we get one of those?" asked Yuzu.

"I don't think it's direct from factory, but a fully operational replica. Complete with cannon and engine." Said Miho.

"In any case it will be a good tank to give to the boys. But we'll need more could we find more when the teams get here?" Anzu asked.

"When will they get here?" asked Miho.

"In about a week." Momo answered.

"If we can find them before that that would be excellent. How many do we have now?" asked Miho.

"Eight plus the T28 that's nine." Yuzu answered.

"We need two more otherwise one of the girls will have to swap out, and I doubt they will be willing to do that." Momo said

"When is the competition?" asked Miho.

"In a little over a month and a half." Anzu answered.

"If none of the teams are willing to swap out then we'll have to rotate tanks with the boys. Until we are able to acquire a new tank, that is." Miho exclaimed with a slight scowl on her face.

"What do you mean?" asked Yuzu.

"We are aloud to swap out teams in competition as many times as needed. So we'll have to train everybody in both Sensha-dou, and Heishi-dou. But even if somebody is willing, it's probably a good Idea to train them in both, as much as possible anyway." Miho concluded.

"How so?" asked Momo with a confused look on her face.

"This is a combined arms competition, and there will be other units infantry units out there, if we get tracked and have to repair or abandon the tank all together we will have to know how to fight as infantry so we won't be a liability to the team." Miho finished and looked around at the room. In everybody's eyes she could see that she had a point.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Oorai boy's high school, the boy's Heishi-dou team was practicing in the forests that surrounded the campus. Captain Kenji Musashi slowly led his team through the forest onto the top of a ridge with a commanding view of the field as quietly as ghosts in the night. He held up his hand and keyed his radio, "Shadow two, this shadow one do you copy, over?" he spoke with a voice as soft and as calm as a summer breeze.

"Hai! We copy you loud and clear." Came the voice of his second in command lieutenant Kouri Higashihara.

"We are in position. Be ready." Kenji answered and gave a quick nod to the rest of his team who spread out across the ridge in teams of two and each of them readied a scoped Springfield sniper rifle or a pair of binoculars. The men quickly made adjustments to their DOPEs and waited for the command to fire. Kenji peered through his scope and spotted Kouri on the opposite ridge signaling him with a mirror, to which Kenji responded by doing the same.

"We're in position ready to kick this off." Kouri spoke through the radio.

"Copy, wait for my signal!" Kenji whispered into the mice and sighted his first target 100 meters down the hill from his friend.

"All sniper teams, fire on my fire." He spoke softly into his radio and flipped the safety off of his rifle.

"3…2...1…UTE!" he whispered and all five teams squeezed the trigger simultaneously. The 30-06 rounds flew silently threw the air towards their target.

Down in the valley, Akihiko Katsumoto stood at the front of his teams patrol. He was wearing full combat gear including a paintball mask of his own to protect against shots to the face. Most of the team wore some version, during training, but during competition they only wore glasses or goggles and a helmet for protection. The patrol crept along the dirt road in the hot summer sun, in almost complete silence. The leader of the group had called for a short break to determine their position and so the men could get water. It was an extremely hot day, and already the team had almost drunken their canteens dry. The group had stopped for only a minute when a shot rang out and Akihiko felt the wind get knocked out of him as the 30-06 stun round hit its mark square in the chest. His reactive armor gave him a short jolt of 100 volts for a few seconds to make sure he hit the ground. The shock from his body left his body numb and paralyzed for a short period of time. Around him he could hear several more shots being fired at distance while his comrades began to panic and began randomly firing shots in every direction with their M1 grand's and type 99 Arisaka rifles.

Akihiko lay on the ground for about ten seconds before he realized the shots were coming from the tops of the 100-meter tall ridges that surrounded them on either side. The group was caught in a cross fire while exposed in the open. The invisible snipers continued to pick off the rest of his team. One of his teammates ran up to him in an attempt to revive him but was quickly stopped by a carefully placed headshot as he let off a spray of bullets from his Japanese type 100 towards the top of the slope, and fell on top of Akihiko further knocking the wind out of him. The fighting ceased moments late as Kenji placed another round between the eyes of the last man of the patrol and a loud air horn rang to alert everybody that the match was over. The men who were hit waited for about five minutes before the effects of the stun rounds wore off.

After the training exercise the men went into the shower room where they attempted to get the feeling back into their muscles. Meanwhile Kenji walked over to the student councils office and was greeted by the president of the student council, Hitoshi Takizawa, along with the coach of the Heishi-dou team, Hisao Musashi, Kenji's father.

"You wanted to talk to me sir?" Kenji said standing at attention in his military dress uniform.

"At ease. You did well out there today Kenji-san. The team's skill has grown since you took command." Hitoshi complemented looking Kenji in the eyes with delight

"We still have a long way to go sir!" Kenji answered in a very militaristic fashion.

"You can cut the _Sir_ bullshit, we're not in the army. But you are right. We still have a long way to go until we get back to the glory days. Had you told me something like that six years ago I would've had to take you on your word alone and still not believe it. But what they say is true, Heishi-dou is in your families blood." Hitoshi said eyeing Hisao.

"Is that all?" Kenji asked easing his stance.

"I wanted to inform you that Oorai girls high school has accepted to be on our team. You know what that means don't you?" Hitoshi smiled.

"We are going to the IWGC?" Kenji stood in disbelief.

"You bet your ass we are! The co-ed school also accepted, you and their commander are going to meet with the girl's school ship tomorrow at 0600 along with your second in commands. Any problems?"

"No sir! I won't let you down!"

"I don't think you will. Remember this is just a formality. You'll be staying for two days and be returning here at 1500 on the second day. We'll be training on dry land in a week with all three schools present. I have your travel schedule right here." Hitoshi handed Kenji his itinerary. "Good luck!" Hitoshi finished.

"Thank you." Kenji replied and he walked out of the room but was stopped in the hall by his father, who he met with an angry gaze.

"Congratulations." Was all that Hisao said.

"What do you want? To remind me of what happened?" Kenji exclaimed angrily.

"No. To say that from here on out it's all up to you." Hisao said.

"What do you mean?" Kenji asked confused.

"I've taught you everything I know, and I'm getting old. Perhaps to old." Hisao said. Kenji just stared at him with a questioning look on his face.

"I'm retiring." Hisao concluded.

"What?"

"I've outlived my usefulness. My knowledge has been passed down to you and your brother." Hisao said. Kenji looked away for a moment at the end of the sentence tears starting to well up in his hazel eyes.

"You still think about it don't you?" asked the old man, "You can't keep blaming yourself…"

"Why not? You do! He does! Besides it was my fault."

"No it wasn't. And it wasn't right for me to blame you for it. Nor act the way I did. Nor is it acceptable from your brother, but he will come to relies his faults in time."

"You're just saying that. You don't really mean it!" Kenji shouted in the empty hallway.

"What more do you want me to do, hmm? I've done all I can. I came here and helped you train your men didn't I. Now I'm trying to apologize to you. What more do you want?" Hisao began to raise his voice.

"It's to late. Three years to late for an apology, and we were doing just fine without you!" Kenji retaliated

"Considering the skills you learned were the ones I taught you, I beg to differ. I had assumed that you had grown past this. That you had matured. I see now that I was wrong. You've let hatred enter your heart. And it will be your downfall. Until you learn to forgive others, you will never be able to forgive yourself. And you will never be in control of your own life." Hisao concluded and walked away. Kenji stood there for a moment, wiped away the tears that had accumulated, and walked in the opposite direction.

Kenji walked back to the barracks where his team stayed during training. Not only was he the captain of the entire Heishi-dou team, numbering 300 strong (Probably the largest team in Oorai's history), but he was also the leader of Oorai's Special Ops team, known as the Black Tigers. The spec-ops team was abnormally modeled. It was modeled after both the U.S. Navy SEALs and British SAS while also mixing in other forms of training, primarily the discipline of the Imperial Japanese army in world war two. Not only was this unit highly trained but also Kenji had made a huge push to incorporate the art of Bushido into the units training. On top of that, most of the Heishi-dou team had prior training in several martial arts such as Karate and Taekwondo, and even Kendo and Iaido sword fighting and many other forms from all over the world. This contributed greatly to training the less experienced members of the team in hand to hand combat. To say the Team was formidable was a bit of an understatement. Yet even with this training, they were still greatly outmatched.

Kenji walked into the teas dojo and changed into his Gi. He picked up a training sword and began to go through the movements his father taught him. He was interrupted when Kouri walked through the door.

"Something on your mind?" his friend asked as he stood there in his own Gi.

"Why do you ask?" Kenji replied with a smile.

"No reason." Kouri said as he picked up two Katanas and threw one to Kenji, who threw his wooden sword aside and caught the real one. Kenji knew what was about to happen, even before it happened. The two exchanged a bow and took up their stance. There was a long pause as a gentle breeze blew threw the room, both fighters stood there transfixed with the other as they moved around in a circle, like to tigers sizing each other up.

Then both came to a stop, and Kouri was the first to attack, striking immediately for Kenji's head bringing his sword downward with surgical precision, but Kenji had anticipated his friends move and stepped out of his way and parried his blade, there was a clanging of metal and an exchange of angry yells and grunts as the two traded blows. Kouri lunged but Kenji stepped around him and attempted to land a blow to Kouri's back, but was blocked as Kouri spun around and whacked the blade away.

Kenji copied Kouri's opening move and went for his opponent's head. Kouri anticipated this and caught Kenji's arm and spun around tripping his opponent, slamming him to the ground, then drew his sword up and prepared to plunge the blade into his opponent's chest. Kenji blocked the blade then delivered a powerful kick to Kouri's chest, causing him to tumbled away. Kenji regained his stance and the two exchanged a flurry of blows emitting a loud clang as metal struck metal, their movements as fluid as water, but as ferocious as a fire.

There was another brief exchange of steel and Kenji struck for a decapitating blow, but Kouri ducked under it. As soon as Kouri had regained his stance he attempted the same attack just as Kenji was bringing his blade around for another strike. The two exchanged places before each had his sword to the others throat and the match ended in a draw.

The two warriors sheathed their blades and gave each other a bow before shaking hands and embracing each other in a tight bro hug. They released each other and put their weapons on the rack while and went back to their rooms.

"So what's the news?" asked Kouri.

"They accepted, I'm leaving tomorrow at 0600." Kenji replied with a blunt smile.

"Hmm…" was all Kouri managed to say.

"You're coming with me." Kenji interrupted his friend's train of thought.

"What?" Kouri asked.

"You didn't think I would be doing this thing alone, did you Kouri-san?" Kenji asked.

"A little." Kouri replied.

"Well I wouldn't. Besides, you're my second in command." Kenji added. Kouri ruffled his hair and the too walked into the barracks to begin packing.


	4. The Flying Tigress

_Sorry it's taken so long guys, I've been busy at school. I would like to point out really quickly to severestal. This is in response to to your comment about how Kenji and Kouri were fighting with real swords just to be "Macho" or however you put it. It is a common practice to train with real weaopns. It teaches you to be mature in handling a weapon and sharpens your reflexes. It adds the danger of being injured, so you have to control your actions better. If you can handle a real sword, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to handle a fake one._

_Disclaimer:Girls und panzer belongs to Actas. The only things that are mine are my OCs._

_BTW: I am accepting OCs. If you want to send me one just PM me and we can talk about it. I could use enough to fill another 4, 4-5 man tank crews for the tank team, a 10 man Spec ops team (maybe more) for the Heishi-dou team, and a fighter/intercepter team, a ground strike team, and a heavy bomber team for 4 heavy bombers for the Hikoki-dou team. Plus names for the schools they'll be going up against. Remember these are international teams. Be sure to include name, age, description, and specialty. (ex. Akio Mitsubishi, 16, 5'10'', Specialty, Ground attack/Squadron leader.) Feel free to expand but those are the must haves._

_I also know that it is a common practice to add boys into Sensha-dou. I realize that is a somewhat used practice so I'm gonna try and push towards having girls in Heishi-dou. I will be having tank battles, and boys in tanks. But I'm also gonna add girls in an infantry role because that seems fair to me. For anybody who says girls can't pull it off, don't bother speaking because I've seen a 110 lb girl tackle a 240 lb guy and walk away fine (Rugby). So don't go telling me that girls can't pull it off. And this is coming from a guy, gents._

_Anyway, On with the story._

* * *

The Flying Tigress

The Oorai Co-ed High School ship sailed smoothly through the water as the massive propellers churned and the prow of the ship cut magnificently through the waves. Akio Mitsubishi, led her flight of four IL-2M3 Sturmoviks 50 meters off the ground at 414 kilometers an hour over the nearby string of atolls in their finger four formation. Akio scanned the sky as the flight flew silently through the air; the only sound was the drone of their engines. Off to her left she caught sight of a column of Panzer IV's sitting on a small dirt road two kilometers away.

"Tank column spotted! Bearing 3-1-0, distance two clicks! All aircraft attack formation!" she shouted into her microphone.

"Copy, I have visual on target, beginning attack run!" answered the voice of Jenna Fukushima, the pilot of the plane to the far left as she banked left and entered a shallow dive. The rest of the bombers followed suit. Jenna lined up the tanks in her sights and fired. Eight 82mm rockets went streaking through the air and impacted the ground around the tanks resulting in a fantastic, although ineffective, series of explosions.

Shortly after she fired her rockets, Jenna switched to guns and unleashed a hail of 7.62mm machine gun, and 23mm cannon rounds upon the convoy, her tail gunner, Aimi Inoue, even spray the tanks with her 12.7mm machine gun as they passed overhead. The planes behind her repeated the process until all tanks had been destroyed. "Targets destroyed!" she exclaimed with a smile on her face.

The group returned to their original formation and began to head back to base. All the pilots had relaxed in their planes, and had stopped paying attention on the skies as they flew over the blue pacific water. Even some of the tail gunners had started to dose off. But Akio remained alert and vigilant, knowing all to well that the fight was never over until the last plane lands. She scanned the skies carefully when a voice came over the radio,

"Red one, come in. Red one, come in." It was Haru Kawaguchi, the flights section leader.

"This is red one, copy?" she replied.

"Did you hear about the Boys' school?"

"Now's really not the best time."

"Oh, common! This is just a ground strike exercise. There's nobody else up here except us."

"As far as you know, remember Fukushima?"

"That was different. This is practice, not a match."

"Always train the way you play, otherwise you get lazy." She said with a smirk on her face.

"Fine, whatever, but still." Haru said, a little annoyed that she was right.

"What?" Akio started to get a little annoyed by her friend's persistence.

"I heard that the captain and second in command get to go over to the girls' school for an introduction."

"So?"

"Do you think I have a shot?" he said grinning into his radio.

"With who?" Akio said in mock confusement.

"One of the girls!"

"What makes you think you're going?"

"I'm the second in command!"

"So? Everybody knows that my sister is my second in command."

"But she's the tail gunner!"

"You do relies you're only the second in command on the bomber ground attack team, right!" Jenna chimed in.

"Hey! This is a private communication!" Haru said annoyed by the interruption.

"Not when you're talking on the whole squadron's channel, moron!" Jenna retorted. Haru fell silent, clearly embarrassed.

"That time in the Air cub doesn't count." Haru said.

"Look if it makes you feel any better, we can talk about it when w-" Akio was cut off when she spotted a glint of metal out of the corner of her eye.

"CONTACT SIX 'OCLOCK HIGH!" she shouted into the mic as a hail of bullets streaked through the air striking Ryō Kurusawa, Haru's tail gunner. The rounds shattered harmlessly into bright orange powder as they hit Ryō's protective vest.

"DEFFENSIVE FORMATION!" Akio shouted, as she and her wingman banked left, while Haru and Jenna banked right. The two pairs then turned into each other, swapping sides, in a defensive Thatch weave. This maneuver would force the enemy fighters to choose one pair of bombers to follow, while the reverse turn would expose them to return fire from the other pair of bombers. As Akio went into the second banking turn she looked over her shoulder in order to locate their attackers. Behind them she saw four Fairchild Republic P-47D Thunderbolts diving on them.

The Thunderbolts were tough and relatively nimble at high altitudes, and could defeat almost any other aircraft with a propeller in a dive and packed a powerful punch in the form of eight Browning M2 .50 cal machineguns. This spelled trouble for the low flying Sturmoviks, whose only advantages was the armored bathtub surrounding the pilot and fuselage.

The P-47s opened fire with their eight .50 cal. machine guns unleashing a deadly hail of frangible ammunition, just barely missing Jenna's wing. Two P-47s pulled in on Akio's six o'clock and opened fire with their machine guns. "I got Jugs on my tail and I can't shake 'em!" she yelled.

"Copy I see them, bring 'em towards me and I'll try and clean them off of you." Haru said in a slightly panicked voice. The four Sturmoviks banked towards each other again and as they began to pass each other again, Haru lined up the lead P-47 in his gun sight and pulled the trigger, unleashing a hail of 23mm and 7.62mm bullets into the fighter. The frangible ammunition did as it was supposed to do and shattered against the aluminum plating, leaving bright orange markings where the round impacted. A series of bright lights went off and a loud buzzer in the cockpit, and a trail of red smoke began trailing behind the aircraft.

"One down!" Akio said before the other P-47 opened fire on her wingman and knocked him out. Kimi, Akio's sister and tail gunner, began to open fire and managed to knock out the oncoming aircraft, which just left the two Jugs that had returned to altitude and had begun another diving attack. "Stay low! Jugs are shit at low altitude, so try to evade their fire." Akio said as 16 browning .50 cal machine guns opened on the remaining aircraft from above riddling Haru's plane with bright orange marks, and knocking him out of the fight as well. The two remaining bombers continued their defensive Thatch weave as the two P-47s streaked by and began to climb again.

This presented Jenna with a brief opportunity. She broke formation and pulled back on the stick slightly to raise the nose of the plane and fired. She managed to hit the tail of the aircraft as it flew away but failed to knock it out. As Jenna returned to formation a lone A7M Reppu managed to sneak up behind her and knocked her out with a brief spray from its 20mm cannons, the rounds impacting the engine and cockpit painting it orange. As the Reppu attempted to do the same to Akio, she pulled a hard right turn, that nearly made her black out, and Kimi opened up with her .50 cal machine gun and knocked the fighter out before she heard a loud metallic click.

"JAM!" she yelled into her radio. Akio swore under her breath as she looked up and behind her to see the two Jugs diving down on her. But just when she thought it was over, a hail of tracers streaked through the air and engulfed the two Thunderbolts in a shroud of red smoke. Akio looked up and saw a pair of P-40D Kitty hawks fly past high overhead. As the lead fighter wagged his wings in salute, Akio breathed a sigh of relief.

The lone Sturmovik flew back to the ships airfield and landed on the runway. Akio taxied the plane into an open hanger, shut off the engine after the plane came to a halt, climbed out of the cockpit, took off her helmet and shook out her medium length black and purple hair. As she walked out of the hangar she met up with the rest the IL-2 pilots.

"Like I told you. Always practice the way you compete." Akio said, focusing her gaze on Haru.

"It was supposed to be a standard ground strike exercise!" Haru complained.

"You should know my brother would pull something like that." Akio said, referring to her brother Hiro Mitsubishi, who was the school's highest scoring ace on the team and the head of the fighter team. Haru knew Akio had a point. He really did know Hiro would probably pull a surprise interception on them.

Just then Hiro walked up to the group. "I see the 'Flying Tigress' still needs bailing out." He exclaimed jokingly, looking at his little sister. Akio was a very smart, and muscular young woman, and fairly tall for her family standing at 5' 10". But her brother practically towered over her at a solid 6' 6", but was marginally stronger than her, yet not nearly as smart, and he suffered from dyslexia. Their little sister Kimi was sort of in between. She was fairly smart, and more than capable of matching wits with her sister on a good day, and nearly as strong as her brother. She was far sighted, and suffered from ADHD, a seemingly dangerous combination for a tail gunner, but she was the highest scoring marksman on the team.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what was the point of flying in at the last minute?" Akio asked smiling.

"QRF training. I rigged it up with the President before todays training." Hiro replied.

"You didn't feel the need to tell me?"

"Expect the unexpected." Hiro said giving a small shrug.

"By the way, the President wants to talk to you. Something about going to the girls' school."

"Will do. As for everybody else," Akio looked around at the rest of the Sturmovik pilots "Get some rest, and while I'm gone work on your situational awareness."

Akio walked into the ATC and walked up the to the tower where she met with the students council president, Nishimaru Honda. "Good work out there." He said.

"We still have a lot o work to do before their ready for the IWGC." Akio said standing at attention.

"Don't worry. We still have a couple of months to train. But that's not why I called you here. You heard about that meeting at the girl's school, correct?" Nishimaru said.

"Yes. It will be me and my brother going correct?" Akio asked.

"Correct. You'll be picking up the boy's team tomorrow at 0600. Here are their ships co-ordinates." He said handing her the small slip o paper with the co-ordinates on it.

"From there you'll pick up the representatives from the Heishi-dou team and fly to those co-ordinates," he pointed to a second air of co-ordinates on the paper, "where the girls' school will be."

"Got it. I'll start packing."

"Good luck. You'll be taking the DC-3. I hope that's okay with you."

"Of course. Should be fun. I'll see you in two days." Akio said and she walked out of the room.

The next day at 0200 she loaded up her duffle bag and walked out into the dark early morning sky, the stars and moon still swinging overhead. The night air was cool and salty from the spray of the sea as the ship cut silently through the dark pacific water. She walked into a dimly lit hanger where her brother was sitting in the co-pilot's seat of the plane in his a vintage World War two style pilots jacket, while he and a few of the ground crew technicians went over the pre flight checklist. "Already starting without me?" she exclaimed loudly making her brother look up from the checklist.

"Yeah, you were taking to long. We're almost done if you want to take over for this guy." Hiro said giving the mechanic a nod and dismissing him. H handed Akio a checklist as she climbed into the cockpit of the aircraft and sat down in the pilot's seat. They finished off the checklist and went over it once more to be sure then Akio began the start up procedures. The engines roared to life and they began to taxi to the runway. "Tower this is flight 287 Delta-Echo-November requesting permission for take off?" Akio's voice rang through the roar of the engines into the headset microphone.

"Copy that 287, skies are clear, you are cleared for take off. Happy trails." Answered a voice from the tower. Akio increased the throttle as the plane began to pick up speed and fly down the runway. Within seconds they had lifted up off the ship and retracting their landing gear. "We are wheels up. Proceeding to bearing 3-5-0. Please keep your seat backs and tray tables in the upright position, and enjoy your flight with Mitsubishi air." Hiro finished his sentence with a joke as the plane flew off into the early morning sky. The forecast had predicted clear skies over the north pacific, and Mother Nature did not disappoint. Akio looked up at the night sky, thinking of how close she was to the stars and the heavens above. She returned her gaze to the instrument panel of the plane and checked the artificial horizon to make sure they were level.

"Hey, why don't you snag a couple extra hours of sleep. I'll wake you up once we get there." Hiro said to his little sister.

"I'm fine. Besides, you know we're not supposed to do that." Akio replied.

"I also know that we'll be flying for a few hours, and will only have about an hour long layover. Based on that I can say that one of us should be as rested up as possible before we begin the second leg of our journey because I don't think those Heishi-dou boys can fly." Hiro stared at his sister a long while before she agreed.

"Okay, fine. Just don't crash us. And wake me up if you have you feel like falling asleep." Akio said.

"Don't worry. I had a shit tone of coffee before we left. That stuff is strong as fuck." He replied as Akio went climbed into the back of the aircraft and went to sleep on the seat racks.

* * *

_I know some of you will wonder why there are planes firing live rounds at each other. I would like to point out that this is a world where 16 year old girls drive around in multi tone steel machines used for war, and fire live rounds at each other. Some of which were designed to tear through tank armor from over a kilometer away. Even if these are simunition rounds, lets not forget the Saunders match where one of the girls on duck team was standing on the back of her tank without any form of armor while the Sherman behind her was shooting a machine gun and its main gun at her. For those of you who still believe that the planes should be playing ariel laser tag, why aren't the tanks using lasers? Because its boring to watch. Plus, in the 1960's the USAF developed what is called the Flying Pinball. It was basically a P-39 with special armor plating and bullet proof glass. This was used to train pilots in ariel marksmanship. They would fire a live round that was designed to fly like a real bullet, and react with the armor of the plane and shatter on impact. If you have any questions, leave a review, and as always don't leave a review that will make you look like an asshole. This is more or less directed at you severstal. I'm not saying it was a bad review, it was in fact just the opposite, it just felt as if you were talking at me instead of talking to me like a professional. Could just be me, just letting you know, keep emotions out of it. Any way guys, hope you enjoy this if so please favorite, and I hope you have a good day. Semper Fi._

_BTW. Does anybody know if the Oorai ship has an airstrip?_


	5. We meet at last

_Definitely not my best chapter. I do like the response that I'm getting from this story though. It's doing way better than I could've possibly imagined. I'm getting views from Britain, Mexico, the US, Bulgaria, Norway, and so many more countries that I can't even keep track of them. I just want to thank you all for reading my story. Also, I would like to apologize publicly to Severstal. I did call you an asshole, but I guess it natural for one to be kind of sour when they do a really bad job on something and are convinced otherwise. I appreciate your honesty and your reviews, and I would love it if you could keep it up. As I always say "I would rather talk to an Honest asshole than a polite liar." _

_With the formalities out of the way I would like to say that I am accepting OC's. Wasn't sure if I wanted to earlier but I definitely have my work cut out for me. Just so we're all clear, I am going to be focussing on ten-15 members of the Heishi-dou team, and about 5 or so new tank teams. Numbers may change. I also need names for pilots. I have a ground attack arm, an escort arm, and a Bomber arm in mind. The bomber arm will have Heavies!_

_So if you want me to use your OC please PM me and we can talk about it. Just give me age, Description, Gender, and Specialty. One last thing. I am aware that the whole "Boys joining Sensha-dou" has been done to death, so I will be trying to add more "Girls joining Heisi-dou". I will still be doing tank battles though so don't worry. Any help or tips you guys can give me will be appreciated._

* * *

We Meet at Last

The twin Pratt &amp; Whitney R-1830 engines sputtered out as the C-47 Sky train slowed to a halt. The sun was hanging over the ocean and a warm early morning breeze blew across the airstrip that ran along the side of the port side of the ship. All four passengers stepped out of the airplane carrying their duffel bags and, in the case of the Heishi-dou team, a briefcase. Kenji took a moment and looked out on the ocean. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon, painting the sky in magnificent shades of blue and orange. A car pulled up to the group and a Miho Nishizumi stepped out of the passenger side door.

"Ohayō gozaimasu." Miho said with a bow. Akio, Kenji, Kouri, and Hiro returned the bow. As soon as Kenji and Kouri straitened up, they both snapped to attention and saluted their host. Both men wore olive brown top and khaki pants that resembled a World War Two US Army Uniform, the only difference being the insignia of a black tiger bearing its teeth, the team's motto "For the Man Next to Me" embroidered on the bottom. Meanwhile Akio, and Hiro both stood in their flight jackets wearing their pilot's cap and aviator glasses.

Miho felt the odd one out coming in her standard green and white school uniform, and not dressed as "professionally" as the others. She pushed the thought aside as she realized she had been standing there for a long while, and neither of the boys had stopped saluting. She slowly returned the salute and they all piled into the car after retrieving their luggage. The car drove past the various restaurants and business buildings. Miho sat on a seat just behind facing the rear of the car, behind the driver. Akio and Hiro sat to her left, while Kenji and Kouri sat to her front. "So, how did you get involved in your sports?" Miho asked trying to break the ice.

Kouri was the first to answer. "Growing up I was a problem child. I was arrested several times for trespassing and vandalism. We tried everything. Psychologists, therapists, sports, everything, and nothing worked. My father wanted to send me into a military academy, but my mother convinced him to send me to Oorai Boy's high school. I heard they used to have a good Heishi-dou team and I had martial arts training for most of my life so I signed up right away. It wasn't until a year later when Kenji-dono arrived that my life actually started to change for the better. So hear I am."

Miho nodded and turned to Kenji and asked, "What about you, Kenji-san?" there was a long pause before Kenji answered, "My father took Heishi-dou when he was my age and he past his knowledge down to me, my brother and my s…" he paused for a moment before continuing, "My ancestors were samurai, and my grandfather served on Okinawa, where he was born. So it was only natural that we follow in their footsteps. My brother was a good leader, he taught me how to take control of a situation. I trained as a sniper, but my father made me a squad leader like my siblings."

"That sounds a lot like you Miho-san!" said the driver, and Miho blushed a bit.

"Indeed. But I heard your mother trained you and your sister to charge forward and fight head on. Force against force, discipline against discipline. Is this true?" Kenji asked.

"Hai." Miho said with a nod.

"My father taught us to fight more like your style, to adapt to the situation and choose your moments to stand your ground, and when to give ground. Always dictate the flow of the battle, and never under estimate your opponent's abilities or over estimate your own."

"So why did you transfer schools?" Miho asked. There was a long pause. "I needed a change in scenery."

Miho gave a nod seeing that guest was not confortable with the conversation. She turned to the two pilots, "What about you?" she asked.

"Pretty much the same for both of us really," Hiro responded, "A lot of my were pilots. Our grandfather was an Ace during world war two, and my father flew commercial airliners for a while then retired to farming, and collecting antique planes. He kept a collection at a local airfield near Nara. I fell in love with flying the moment I set eyes on my dads old Sopwith Camel."

"I started on a Fokker D3, and Kimi started on a Piper Bear Scout" Akio chimed in.

Miho nodded with a fascinated smile, "How did you get into Hikouki-dou?" she asked.

"It was our mother really. She started participating in Hikouki-dou when she as about 15 but had been flying for years. At that time, Hikouki-dou was a strictly male sport, so she disguised herself as a boy for a whole year in order to fly," Akio responded, smiling in affection, "She inspired us to take up the sport to."

"How is your mother now?" Miho asked.

"She's battling lung cancer. The old smoke agent they used when the plane got hit wasn't very safe once inhaled, and she spent a lot of time in open top planes during those matches." Akio said, the smile dissipating from her face.

"I'm sorry." Miho said beginning to frown slightly.

"Don't worry, she's a fighter. Doctors say she has a really good chance. We help out any way we can. Some of the money we maid from the championships we donated to cancer research. We figured; she's worked so hard for us. Maybe it's our turn to help her." Hiro said.

"That's very nice. She must be lucky to have kids like you." Miho's smile returned to her face.

"Miho-san! We're almost to the Sensha-dou sheds." The driver said.

"Hai! Thank you very much." She replied turning to the driver. The car pulled up to the Sensha-dou tank sheds and everybody climbed out carrying their luggage. They walked into the large buildings where the tanks were being stored and met up with Yukari.

"This is my loader, Yukari Akiyama." Miho said, introducing her friend, "Yukari-san this is…"

"I know exactly who they are!" Yukari interrupted as she started to jitter around as if she were on a panzer high.

"Kouri Higashihara! Second in command of the Oorai Heishi-dou team, and Heishi-dou record holder for both the longest confirmed 'kill shot' made, and most targets engaged in the shortest amount of time." Yukari ran over and shook his hand vigorously.

"Hiro Mitsubishi! Fighter ace of Oorai, and first fighter ace in Hikouki-dou to openly admit to having dyslexia." Yukari continued.

"Akio Mitsubishi, AKA the Flying Tigress. Most confirmed fighter kills while flying a dive-bomber." Yukari turned to Kenji next.

"Kenji Musashi, second in command of Tokyo Boy's high school Heishi-dou team and Captain of the Oorai Heishi-dou team. Second place in the Japanese Heishi-dou championship finals. By the way, I'm sorry for your loss." Yukari concluded, giving Kenji a bow of respect, which Kenji returned.

"Well that's what we're here to help with." Miho said.

"No, that's not what I was…"

"Ehem… I believe you were about to show us something miss Nishizumi-san?" Kouri interrupted Yukari giving her a quick shake of the head and exchanging a nod with Kenji.

"Oh yes, that's right. Gentlemen, and ladies, if you'll please follow me." Miho said, missing the gestures that were being passed. The group walked over to the sheds and walked inside. Inside was every tank in Oorai's arsenal, arranged left to right starting with the Panzer IV and ending with the T-95. Miho started with the Panzer IV and continued down the line as Yukari listed out each tanks Major features, advantages, disadvantages, and each team's crew, and kill record. When the group reached the T-95 the four visitors stared in awe as Yukari went over the armor thickness and gun performance.

"There is, however, a major flaw in the tanks design. It…"

"It's moves slower than snails shit." Nakajima peaking out of the gunner's coupla interrupted Yukari.

"Exactly. It's an 86 tonne vehicle with a 500-horse power engine. A TOG can beet this thing by half a mile." Yukari said. Kenji and Kouri climbed up the front of the tank and climbed in through the commander's coupla. Inside was slightly cramped and it was clear that the tank wasn't built for more than a crew of four, so somebody would have to double as the radio operator. Kenji looked around the tank. The smell of steel and engine oil filled his nose. "How's it look?" Miho asked peeking her head into the commander's coupla.

"It looks good. Solid. I think we can work with this. What do you think Kouri-san?" Kenji said as he turned to his friend.

"Yeah. I can be the gunner when I'm not on the infantry team. I think Takiko would be a better commander in this thing than I would be." Kouri replied.

"Yeah, he has more experience with loud metal vehicles moving very slowly. Although I would say a sniper would have the patience to drive this thing." Kenji teased.

"Don't get me started on that. I'm the best shot on the team, which would make me an Ideal gunner. If Takiko can't handle it or isn't around, then I'll take over. Besides I heard one of the prototypes of this thing flamed out during testing. You'll want someone with mechanical training commanding this thing." Kouri replied. Kenji started to twitch a little bit.

"Excuse me, may I come out?" he said making his way to the hatch. Upon seeing his friend starting to twitch Kouri signaled for Miho to move from the hatch.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yes," Kouri replied helping Kenji out of the tank, "He just gets claustrophobic sometimes." Miho nodded and checked her watch. It read 0900 hours. She climbed off the tank, "Is anybody hungry?" she asked the group.

"Starving!" Hiro replied jumping off the Hetzer. Akio appeared next to him a slapped him on the shoulder telling him, "Be polite".

"Hai. We didn't get to eat before we left." Kenji said.

"In that case, I know a place we can eat." Miho replied.

"Where should we keep our things?" Kouri asked.

"If you want to leave them by the work bench somebody will be by to pick them up latter." Miho answered.

"Hai!" Kenji replied and he and the others placed their bags by a workbench against the far wall. The group walked out of the sheds and Miho started to walk towards the car.

"If it's all the same with everybody else, I think I would like to walk? Just to get a better look at the rest of the ship." Kenji said.

"Sure." Miho said with a smile and waved off the car and the group walked to one of several restaurants on the ship.

"So what's your record, Kouri-san?" Akio asked Kouri as the group sat down in a sushi restaurant.

"Which one?" Kouri asked after swallowing his food.

"Either one?" Akio replied.

"Longest kill shot was about 2.4 kilometers. I was just 70 meters short of the real world record. The most kills in the least amount of time were 16 kills in 38 seconds. What was yours?" Kouri asked

"Eight A6M zeros while I was flying a Dauntless dive bomber." Akio replied in confidence, "My total aerial kill record is 23 confirmed aerial victories."

"How does one get 17 kills in under a minute?" asked Yukari.

"Shooting left to right in the dead of night while the guys were crossing a stream. I had an M1 Carbine with a 15 round clip plus one in the chamber." Kouri said taking another bight of sushi.

"You sound like a really good sniper. Almost as good as Hana-san." Yukari said.

"How do you make a 2.4 kilometer shot?" Miho asked.

"Well…" Kouri was interrupted when Hana Isuzu walked in through the front door and was greeted by Yukari.

"Hana-chan! Over here!" shouted Yukari. Hana looked up and waved then walked over to her friends and sat down. As soon as Kouri saw her time seemed to slow down a bit. He didn't really know what it was about her. Then it hit him, she was beautiful. Hana noticed him staring and blushed a bit as she caught herself staring back and turned to resume talking to her friends. Kouri was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realize how long he'd been staring until Kenji tapped him on the shoulder.

'Huh…?" Kouri asked, snapping out of his trance. Kenji gestured towards the girls sitting in front of them. Hana smiled and gave a little giggle as Kouri snapped back to reality.

"As I was saying," Miho continued her sentence; "This is Hiro and Akio Mitsubishi from Oorai co-ed high school; and Musashi Kenji, and Higashihara Kouri from Oorai boys high school. Kouri was just telling us how he was able to make a 2.3-kilometer shot."

"Really? How?" Hana asked.

"Well it takes a lot of skill. Being able to compensate for the wind, bullet drop, spindrift, even the carioles effect comes into play at that distance. Plus you have to have the right equipment." Kauri said pulling his thoughts back together.

"Spindrift?" Hana asked.

"You know how the barrel of the gun is rifled?" Kauri turned to her and asked.

"Yes."

"Well…The rifling gives the bullet a spin to stabilize it. But eventually the bullet will start to drift in the direction of the rotation."

"I see. What were you shooting at?"

"The other team's captain. Apparently, just before he got hit, he was telling his team that we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn." Everyone laughed.

Miho checked her watch. It was now nearly noon. "We will have to get going soon," she said, "We have a meeting with the student council president."

"Hai. It was nice meeting you Miss Akiyama, Miss Isuzu. I hope to meet you again." Kenji said giving a bow to the girls.

"Hai. Me to Miss Akiyama, and I am sorry I don't think I caught your full name?" Kouri said facing Hana.

"Hana. Hana Isuzu. I'm our tank's gunner." Hana replied while returning the bow.

"In that case, I think we'll be meeting again soon Miss Isuzu. I hope you have a lovely day." Kouri said before walking out of the restaurant.

"I think he likes you!" Yukari said excitedly.

"What makes you say that?" Hana asked.

"Didn't you see the way he was staring at you?" Yukari said.

"Not really. He could've been staring at anybody else in the restaurant." Hana answered.

"Whatever you say. Saori-san would agree with me though. Or at the very least she would know how to tell for sure."

"She would've been stuttering for hours in front of that boy. Still, I suppose he was kind of cute." Hana said, starting to blush a little.

"You really like him!" Yukari teased.

"You've been spending to much time with Saori-san. Do you want some ice cream? I'll pay." Hana said, taking out her wallet.

"Sure. I'll have the chocolate flavor." Yukari said before Hana signaled a waiter.

* * *

"So, what do you think of our ship?" asked Anzu as she sat in front of her four visitors.

"It is very beautiful. I look forward to the rest of our stay. Miho has done a great job showing us around." Kenji said, bowing his head in respect.

"I'm glad to hear it. So on to business. Miho here said it would be a good idea to train both teams in Heishi-dou, and Sensha-dou. Do you agree?" Anzu asked.

"No." Kenji replied bluntly. His reaction seemed to surprise all three of the student council members, and even Miho.

"Why not? Do you doubt our teams resolve?" asked Momo Kawashima, Anzu's second in command or at least the equivalent of that, asked in surprise.

"It is not a question of resolve, but a question of stamina. The physical requirements in order to even train in Heishi-dou are demanding. The training itself is very rugged. It takes weeks in order to build up that kind of stamina. Then there is weapons training, field craft, basic survival, map reading and navigation, close quarter combat, defensive preparations. We would have to find each girl's strong points and find her a place in a platoon then train them in it. On top of that, not all of my men know all the facts of who we'll be competing with." Kenji concluded.

"So you think it would be a waste of time?" Momo said, anger starting to show in her voice.

"If we were to go through that entire list, then yes. Plus it would be a challenge for my men to be taught how to drive heavy machinery like tanks considering many of them haven't used such equipment. The fact they would be taught by girls would further complicate the matter." Kenji replied calmly.

"You don't think we are qualified to teach men how to operate tanks?" Anzu said also starting to feel annoyed by the outsider's implications. Miho herself was feeling a bit angry, and surprised with him.

"That's not what I-"

"Then what did you mean?" An angry Momo cut off Kenji mid sentence.

"I'm sorry if I have offended you. The fact of the matter is that many of these men will be apprehensive about being taught how to do something so heavy duty by women, they may even look upon Sensha-dou as being cowardly because you're hiding in a steel box. If we wanted to train everybody in everything, it would take a year. I can train your team in basic weapons handling and navigation, as well as physical fitness. If we can, you will train those of my men who are willing to participate in Sensha-dou. As well as any newcomer we get. If we have any time left we may think about advancing their training. But keep in mind, we must also train, my men especially, in armored warfare tactics, and we will have to learn how to use Akio-san and her Hikouki-dou team to their full advantage." Kenji concluded, and all fell silent.

"So you can train our girls in Heishi-dou?" Anzu asked.

"I can train them as much as possible the rest depends on how quickly they learn. The same goes for my boys. Worse case scenario, your girls will learn how to shoot a gun and run a mile, my boys learn how to drive a tank in a strait line. That could be enough to by us some time."

"Good. I won't go easy on your boys. And I expect you to do the same with my girls. Am I right to assume this is volunteer only?"

"Hai! Although I think we should have PT and weapons training mandatory for all. Everything else should be optional, but I'll leave that to your judgment." Kenji said bowing his head.

"As far as flight training goes we may be able to teach a few people to be gunners or even forward air controllers or recon pilots in a Grasshopper. But we don't have enough time to train any new comers in advanced aviation skills unless they have advanced prior training." Akio chimed in.

"That is true. We have already received about fifty new applicants to the school who should be arriving shortly. Of those, I do not know how many will be participating in the team. But we will get the word out and see how many will be willing to join the team." Momo said.

"The same goes for us. Although our school is largely military oriented, I predict we will have most of our new recruits joining the sport." Kauri said.

"How many students are we talking about here?" asked Yuzu.

"I'm told at least 50, as well. What about you, Akio-san?" Kenji said.

"From what I know, we are receiving 10 recruits with a B17 from Saunders aeronautical academy. That's all I know off the top of my head. As far as I know, we weren't accepting new enrollments this year. I can find out once we get back to our ship."

"Thank you Akio-san." Anzu said.

"Did we get a list of rules from the IWGC?" Hiro asked.

"Yuzu?" Anzu said as if signaling her secretary.

"Hai!" Yuzu said and handed a yellow packet to everyone in the room. The letters IWGC were printed in large print on the front, covering what looked like a German Tiger tank. On the bottom of the cover the words **WARNING: SUBJECT TO CHANGE **were printed in slightly smaller letters.

"Subject to change?" Miho asked.

"Well I guess it would be safe to assume that a competition such as this would take some time to prepare and organize and things change. It would make it difficult to adhere to certain time tables." Anzu replied.

"Rule two on the battlefield: Bullshit happens." Akio said.

"What's rule one?" asked Yuzu.

"Don't shoot your own teammates." Kenji replied.

* * *

_Like I said. Not my best work. I know I didn't say there would be any "Romance" if what I've done here can be called such a thing. But there's boys and girls working together in an environment like this, how could I not? Any tips on how to actually write a "romance" story will be appreciated. Anyway please read and review and if you want a character don't forget to PM me. Nothing but useful reviews, nothing hurtful or hateful. Oh, and Severstal, if you could give me a quick rundown on the high points of my story so far that would be great. I know Theralion has also been reviewing and if you could do the same that would be great. And do forgive me if I don't follow all the advice you give because like I've said before I'm only in high school myself, this is my first story, and this is MY story and I will take it the way I want to. No disrespect but I don't know if you're good reviewers on this sight or what, but I'll do the best I can and hope that's enough. As always guys, Semper Fi._


	6. Girls in Tanks

_He guy's sorry it took a while, but I had a lot of school to catch up on. Anyway, before we get into it I wold just like to say that I haven't gotten any OC's aside from two, that are by the same person. What's up with that? I agree that the last chapter was not my best work, but hopefully this will change your mind. And a big shout out to Severstal, who gave me some really great pointers, and gave me the idea to write this chapter. I will take this time to say that this will probably be the only time I'm going to be doing a Sensha-dou style match. At first i was going to do a Sensha-dou battle with planes and infantry, because this is a war game and, let's face it, it has been done to death. So I will be doing something pretty different. Not going to tell you what it is just yet, but it will involve alliances. Well I'm going to stop talking now, so I'll see you guys again at the end of the page. And now, on with the story._

* * *

Girls in Tanks

Having read through the rules for the war games, Kenji, Kouri, Hiro, and Akio parted ways. Kenji spent the rest of the day exploring the rest of the ship. Visiting shopping outlets, restaurants, and he eventually found himself at the tankery store. He walked into the store and was amazed at the amount of tank paraphernalia in such a small shop. He saw various magazines, clothing; though it seemed to be made for mainly girls, blueprints, operating manuals, and even tank simulators including a large, arcade style machine sitting in a corner. He spent about an hour or so looking through the shop, and even playing the simulator a few turns. He was surprised at how difficult all this actually was, and was beginning to have a new found respect for the sport.

Kenji walked around the ship and shops for the rest of the day until he decided to walk back to his apartment. It took him a few hours for him to find the right address. But after buying a map and asking for directions and getting turned around more than once, he finally arrived at a four-story apartment complex. He immediately walked up the stairs and pulled out a key that Miho had given him earlier. He placed the key in the corresponding door and opened it. Inside there was a nice little apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room with a small television. Kenji walked into the room and saw that his things had already been brought into the apartment and were sitting neatly on the couch. A moment late Kouri walked out of one of the rooms, having already settled in.

"How'd your day on the town go?" Kouri asked, half joking.

"Pretty good. I think we may have underestimated our new allies." Kenji replied.

"No, that was you. I didn't say anything." Kouri responded dryly.

"Come on. Even you have to admit, everything I've said has at least some merit to it?" Kenji said.

"Well, yes. But you saw the videos. These girls are professionals. Anything they may lack in strength, they more then hell make up for in intelligence." Kouri replied.

"Your right," Kenji paused before switching topics, "So what about that Hana girl?" he asked.

"What about her?" Kouri said, his face starting to redden.

"You like her, don't you." Kenji asked teasingly.

"What are you talking about, we only talked for a few minutes!" Kouri said, now turning even redder.

"Spin drift Kouri-san? We both know that that shot was pure dumb luck. But then again, humbleness was never your greatest strength." Kenji replied putting a kettle of water on the stove.

"That's not true, I went through the calculations." Kouri replied. Kenji just gave him an inquisitive look as they waited for the water to boil.

"Fine! Maybe I like her a little bit. Why?" Kouri admitted.

"No reason. I just never have seen you fall for anybody before." Kenji asked while turning on the TV.

"What about you and Miho-san?" Kouri asked.

"Nothings going on between me and her. She's a teammate. Nothing more, nothing less." Kenji replied dryly.

"For now." Kouri teased. "So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Kouri asked finally.

"I heard their giving us demonstration, a mock battle of, some kind. To show us what they can do, I guess." Kenji replied.

"Sounds fun. What do you think about that T95?" asked Kouri.

"That old tortoise? It's the speed I'm worried about. The armor may be good, but it won't matter for long if we can't point our gun in the right direction." Kenji replied

"True." Kouri said

"You don't mind being the gunner for that beast. Do you?" Kenji asked

"Not at all. As long as I can continue my normal duties whenever possible?" Kouri asked.

"No problem." Kenji said. The two talked for a few more hours about things like marksmanship, weapons training, PT, room clearing, and things they thought appropriate in the upcoming training season. Once that was done, the two watched more TV and eventually went to sleep at around 10:00 pm.

* * *

The sun rose early on the school ship, and Kouri and Kenji both rose early to meet it. Both men made a good routine to do some form of exercise in the morning. Their entire school did. But when they exited their building to find the streets mostly deserted, it was a very surreal experience. It was only about 5:30 in the morning so it wasn't surprising that most people were still asleep. Kenji and Kouri started their exercise with a 2-mile run around the ship. It was amazing to see all the little shops and restaurants quiet and abandoned. After the run they stopped at a park and continued with a few sets of sit-ups and push-ups. They finished their exercise with a run back to their apartment. Both men took turns showering and getting dressed, then made some rice and cracked a fresh egg over it and ate in relative silence. A car showed up at the front of the apartment at 7:00 am and they both gathered their things and rode back to the tankery sheds. There they were told that they would observe the Sensha-dou teams practice and then a mock battle latter in the day.

"Good morning every one!" Yelled the excited voice of a young Japanese woman dressed in the uniform of the JGSDF. Captain Chono looked upon the Sensha-dou team as the girls lined up in front of their tanks.

"Good morning captain Chono!" the class yelled back.

"Some of you may have heard rumors that we would be involved in an international event over the next few months," Chono paused, "I'm am here to tell you that these rumors are true." The entire class erupted with cheering, although some attempted to hide their mixed feelings of dread knowing that the coming months would mean more training.

"However," Chono boomed causing the entire class to quiet down, "Due to the nature of this competition, we will not be doing this alone. Here with us are the team captains of the Oorai coed high school's Hikouki-dou team, captain Mitsubishi Akio, and lieutenant Mitsubishi Hiro, and the team captains of Oorai boy's high school's Heishi-dou team, captain Musashi Kenji, and lieutenant Higashihara Kouri." she said gesturing towards the four leaders standing off to her left. The tankery team gave applause as the four visitors gave a bow of respect.

"They will be watching our practice today from the command tower, and latter we will preform a mock battle. This will give them a chance to see how we operate. Do your best and remember, this is just like any other practice." The coach dismissed her team and they clambered into their tanks. Mako Reizei lazily climbed into the driver's seat of anglerfish team's Panzer IV tank. Hana Isuzu climbed into her position as gunner, followed by Saori Takebe in the radio operator's position, and Yukari Akiyama as the loader. Last to enter the tank was Miho Nishizumi in the commander's coupla.

"Did you see that boy? He was kind of cute! Do you think he noticed me?" Saori began.

"Which boy? There were three of them." Mako replied in her usual monotone voice as she hit the igniter for the engine. The metal beast roared to life as Mako let it idle for a few seconds before closing the choke and putting the tank into gear. The tank lurched forward followed by the other tanks on the team.

"Kenji-san, I think it was? I wonder if I'm finally going to get a boy friend?!" Saori said excitedly. Hanna giggled at her friend a little.

"What's so funny?" Saori asked.

"It's nothing, Saori-san. As long as you keep your eye on the target until you're ready to fire, you'll do fine. Like Hanna-san" Yukari said giving Hannah a friendly pat on the back. Hanna stiffened a little, knowing what her friend was implying.

"Lets keep the gossip to a minimum until we finish up here." Miho said into the intercom as she poked her upper body out of the turret.

"You got it Miporin." Saori replied turning the dials on the radio. "This is Angler fish to all tanks. What's your status, over!" she said into the radio.

"This is Hippo team, we're rolling."

"Turtle team, same here."

"Duck team, ready for action."

"Rabbit team, falling in."

"Leopon team, moving!"

"Mallard team, joining formation."

There was a long pause as the tanks waited the response from anteater team.

"This is Anteater, sorry about that. Still don't have the hang of this thing yet. Were falling in behind mallard team." Nekota, commander of Anteater's Chi-Nu tank, replied over the radio. The tanks practiced formation driving in various formations. Each tank pushed its top speed and the formations changed direction in almost perfect unison. After about half an hour of driving in various formations, the team drove over to the shooting range. The tanks lined up at various distances, with those closest to the target on the left and those furthest to the right. The panzer IV and Tiger P were both positioned at 1 kilometer from the target. The Tiger's gunner, Hoshino, peered through the scope. She fired five shots and all five were in the bull's eye, almost three inches apart at most. Hana peered through her own scope on the Panzer IV and prepared to fire. She fired the cannon and there was a large flash of light and smoke and a loud BANG that kicked up the dust around it. Yukari reloaded the gun with amazing speed, lifting the seventy-five millimeter shell without even a grunt. The gun fired four more times for a total of five shots, and all five shots were in a tight grouping in the center of the bull's eye, barely an inch and a half apart at most, but most of them were touching.

In the tower Kouri and Kenji were both astonished at the accuracy of the gunners on all the tanks. All the way down the line, each tank was having similar results. Except for Anteater team whom, due to lack of experience, had only managed score a few hits on the target at all, at 200 meters. Their final shot, however, did manage to hit the center of the target, albeit out of luck rather than experience. Even so, the girls in the tanks cheered at what they had accomplished. They were progressing, which is always good. The practice suddenly changed tempo as the tanks began to drive around the practice area. The tanks would come to a complete stop, then fire, then continue to drive. The idea was to get the hang of the old shoot 'n scoot, and train the crew to coordinate so that the shot is fired and they're on the move before your opponent can fire back. It also trained the gunner in making snap judgements.

After another fourty-five minutes of target practice, and more driving practice, the time finally came for their mock battle. It was decided that team one would consist of Anglerfish, Hippo, Rabbit, and Anteater teams while team two would consist of Leopon, Mallard, Duck, and Turtle teams. The teams made their way to different sides of the forest while they waited to start the match.

"Alright ladies! Everybody in position. Remember your training, and do your best. Panzer vor!"

The panzer IV lurched forward moving up the road. Miho confidently stuck her head out of the tank, scanning the area with her binoculars. "Saori! Tell Rabbit team to take Anteater and scout out the woods at map grid 3-4-4-3-5-2." Miho said.

"Hai!" Saori replied. "Rabbit this is Anglerfish, how copy, over?"

"We read you loud and clear!" came the voice of the team's radio operator, Yuuki Utsugi.

"Take Anteater team and scout the area at map grid 3-4-4-3-5-2. Over?"

"Copy that! Rolling out!" and with that the two tanks proceeded to move towards their designated area on the map.

"Hippo team! We're going to take position on the west side of the ridge and play it by ear from there." Miho said into her own radio.

"Hai!" came the response from the Stug. III.

All four tanks reached their positions some minutes later. Miho was glassing the area with her binoculars when the radio came to life.

"Anglerfish! this is Anteater team! We found the enemy team. They're on the ridgeline to the north west of our position! Rabbit's lost a track! We can't take any more of this! We need back up!" Yelled Nekota.

"Copy that! Hang on, we are on our way!" Miho yelled. The two tanks raced down the hill and to their friends.

* * *

**Five Minutes Earlier**

Rabbit team's M3 Lee, and Anteater team's Chi-Nu rumbled slowly through the forest as they searched for their opponents. They arrived just at the edge of a small clearing. Anteater's tank rolled passed the tree line by several meters, exposing the tank, when a massive explosion ripped through the air. The Chi-Nu ground to a halt as more shells began to reign down around them.

"Does anybody see where they're coming from?" Yelled Karina Sakaguchi, the team's driver.

"Over there, on the ridge to our two o'clock at 800 meters!" yelled the tanks commander, Azusa Sawa.

"I see them! I count four tanks!" yelled the tanks thirty-seven millimeter gunner, Aya Oono.

"Karina-chan, back up and we'll try to flank them!" yelled Azusa.

"What about Anteater team?" asked Karina.

The crew of Anteater team's Chi-Nu was in a near panic as the shells reigned down on them when Azusa told them to get moving.

"This god damn stick won't budge!" Yelled Momoga, the team's driver as she threw her weight into the gear shifting leaver.

"Not again! Piotan-san, start firing!" Yelled Nekota as she attempted to help her friend with the lever. Piotan loaded the heavy seventy-five millimeter shell into the guns breach with a healthy amount of effort. She took position in the gunners seat and lined up Mallard team's Char-B1 bis and fired. The tank rocked back and forth as the cannon spat fire and metal at its target. But the shot went way low and impacted harmlessly into the base of the hill.

"Nekota-san! What's going on?" Azusa yelled into the radio.

"Our tank won't move! The levers stuck!" Nekota replied in a panicked tone.

"Damn it." Azusa thought to herself. She couldn't leave her friends there, but at the same time, moving out to help would be practically suicide.

"Karina-chan. We need to draw fire away fro Anteater team and fast. Poke out of the tree line for five seconds. Aya, fire a round at Mallard team. You only have five seconds to aim and fire. Once those five seconds are up we are going to haul ass back into the tree line and flank right." Azusa said into the tank's intercom.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Karina

"No. But it's better than leaving Anteater there to get gunned down." Azusa replied. Karina changed gears, and the tank lurched forward far enough to expose the seventy-five millimeter cannon for a clear shot on Mallard, then came to a stop.

"Uttei!"Azusa yelled. But Aya was still trying to aim the gun.

"Aya! Uttei!" She yelled again.

"On the way!" Aya yelled back. The gun belched fire and the shell flew through the air and slammed into Mallard's turret. The pyrotechnic charge exploded and their white flag deployed. Although the shot was good, Rabbit team had taken to long, and the Hetzer's seventy-five millimeter cannon blew off rabbit teams tracks. The tank had moved back into the tree line, but was still partially exposed to return fire.

"Our tracks busted! Cover us while we make repairs." Azusa told her teammates.

"Ahh…Okay?!" Nekota replied, unsure of her self. Piotan loaded another round and adjusted her aim a little, then took the shot. There was a mighty roar and the cannon belched flames as the shot sailed through the air. The round sailed harmlessly over the Hetzer and landed on the other side of the hill. But it did not go un-noticed. The little tank destroyers hull began to turn towards the Chi-Nu.

"Anglerfish! this is Anteater team! We found the enemy team. They're on the ridgeline to the north west of our position! Rabbit's lost a track! We can't take any more of this! We need back up!" Nekota frantically yelled into the radio.

"Copy that! Hang on, we are on our way!" came the response from her teammates.

* * *

Two girls from rabbit team were already out of the tank. Kenji and Kouri watched the monitor closely, as if to absorb every detail of the unfolding events. Kenji was humbled by the courage of the girls on the field. In the observation booth were he was, there was no audio connected to the girls' radios, so he thought of the girls' tactics as cocky and reckless and was completely unaware to the transmission problems the girls were having. The entire situation was being played out differently on his end. It was not apparent to him that the girls understood the importance of cover, although the opposing team did interest him. They had set up a very defensible position, and were in fairly good cover. The only problem he had was that the team was sky lining itself, and their inconsistent accuracy.

* * *

In the Tiger P, the girls of the motor vehicles club operated their tank with speed and proficiency, although Hoshino was a little annoyed about having missed with so many shots. Finally she took her eye away from the sights and took a deep breath. "Load armor piercing," she said. She sighted her target, the disabled M3 Lee, and fired. The gun erupted with a thunderous BOOM and a flash of light as the eighty-eight millimeter high-velocity shell was sent flying through the air.

"Eighty-eight!" Yelled Azusa as both girls jumped off and took cover behind the tank they had only just gotten out of.. There was a loud BANG and the sound of metal smashing metal, as the M3 shook violently and the air was filled with black smoke and flame as the incoming round planted itself into the center of the tanks upper glacis and pyrotechnic charge in the tank went off, and there was the signature "Pop" of the white flag popping open.

"Rabbit team, are you okay?" Nekota said into her radio.

"Were fine. No serious damage, and the girls outside are okay as well." Came the response from rabbit team's radio operator.

"Rabbit team is down. But they're all okay." Nekota radioed Miho. It had been only seconds since the team had been tracked, but it felt so much longer. The Hetzer was still turning itself towards the little tank

"Hai! Just hang on a little bit longer." Miho responded.

"We need to do something!" Nekota yelled to her crew.

"Right!" Momoga replied as she slammed her weight into the stick once again and the tank lurched forward at top speed. The tank continued for about one hundred meters before hitting an exposed boulder, and getting stuck on top of it.

"Piotan-san. Hit the Tiger!" Nekota yelled, the panic clear in her voice. Piotan aimed at the Tiger P and took a speculative shot at the steel monster. She knew it wouldn't work. But something was better than nothing. The gun roared and spat another blast of flame and metal.

"Hoshino take out the Chi-Nu!" called Nakajima. Hoshino had to traverse her turret several degrees to the right and down, on account on the little tank's near suicide run. She was in the process of traversing to the right when there was a loud BANG. It wasn't enough to kill the tank, but it wasn't a ricochet either. Hoshino quickly found that the Chi-Nu had scored a lucky hit under the Tiger's turret, and had jammed the tanks horizontal turret drive. The shell must have lodged itself under the turret and jammed it. Until the shell was removed, the tank couldn't do much in terms of shooting.

"Turtle team! You mind taking out that Chi-Nu?" Nakajima called into her radio.

"Sure thing!" Anzu answered. Momo took aim through her scope.

"Did we kill it?" asked Nekota.

"I don't think so." Replied Piotan.

"Then how are we still alive?" asked Momoga.

"No idea," Nekota said, "But I've got a bad feeling about-" the tank shook violently as the Hetzer's seventy-five millimeter armor piercing round slammed into the side of the Chi-Nu. The Hetzer sat under some trees near the slope on the right side of the hill. "Target down!" Momo exclaimed into the radio.

"This is anteater team, we're down!" Nekota said into the radio.

Miho let out a sigh, "Is everyone alright!" she asked.

"Yes we're fine." Nekota confirmed.

* * *

_So I decided to leave it here for now, I'm going to finish the battle in the next chapter. So before anybody gives me grief about the turret getting jammed, I would like to point out that it can happen, although I will admit at 700 meters I'm pushing my luck. But it has happened in history. Tiger 131's turret was jammed by a british shell in north africa, which is why the crew abandoned it. But it can be removed, although I'm not sure how. Some insight on that would be much appreciated. Just a reminder I am accepting OC's, just look at the bottom of the last chapter to find the 'guidlines' and just PM me if you want yours to be in here. I have gotten two from Lemanruss669, which I will introduce in the next chapter, because I still have a lot of work to get back to. But I hope you like the story guys, please Favorite and Follow, and R&amp;R is always appreciated, just no put downs, only useful advice. As always, Semper Fi._


	7. Girls in Tanks Part 2

_Hey guys. So I'm probably gonna skim quickly through the training months. Something like a series of snapshots, like they did in the anime. So that's all I have to say at the moment. I'll see you guys at the end of the bottom of the page._

* * *

**Girls in Tanks Pt. 2**

Miho and Erwin told their drivers to stop on a nearby hill one and a half kilometers to the southwest of where the battle took place. Both girls saw the smoke rising up from the three destroyed tanks and were glassing the ridgeline with their binoculars. On top of the ridge, they could see the remaining tanks of the opposing team. They were out of effective firing range for their gunners to hit, but within the reasonable range of the Tiger P's eighty-eight millimeter cannon.

"We could try to snipe them from here." Hana suggested, poking her head out of the gunner's hatch.

"At best we'll be able to take out two of them. We don't have the penetration to take out the Tiger from this distance. It would be better if we keep the element of surprise." Miho responded.

"Besides, the Tiger could easily snipe us from this distance. With their heat rounds or even APCR. Plus the eighty-eight has a pretty flat trajectory, so they still have a chance to hit us if they misjudge the distance." Yukari replied.

"What abut flanking?" Asked Erwin, "The west side of the ridge would be our best bet. We'd be in cover the whole way around."

"Sounds like a good Idea." Miho paused and looked closer at the Tiger P, "Erwin, could you look at the turret of the Tiger P. What do you think they're doing?" Miho asked.

Erwin peered through her binoculars to see Hoshino standing on the tank, trying to dislodge something with a crowbar. "It looks like somebody jammed their turret. It's hard to tell." Erwin replied.

"Yet another reason to flank around from the west. We'll have to hurry. If we can get there before they dislodge whatever it is that's jamming their turret they'll have to traverse their entire hull. Which gives us the advantage." Miho climbed back into her tank and told Mako to start it up again. The metal beasts roared to life and began to reverse back down the hill they were on.

* * *

"Hoshino-san. How's it coming?" Nakajima said poking her head out of the hatch.

"This things really jammed in there." Hoshino replied back.

"I'll see if we have another crowbar." Nakajima ducked back down into the hatch before one of the girls from duck team called out, "Hey! I think I see something on the hill to our south. It looked like a glint of light or something. Maybe from an optic?" said Noriko Isobe, Duck team's commander, and loader.

"Did you see anything else?" Hoshino asked.

"No, nothing. Do you think it was their last two tanks?" Noriko asked.

"Probably. They're going to try and flank us from the west. How are we doing on that shell Hoshino-san?" Nakajima asked poking her head back out of the hatch.

"I don't think I'll be able to get it out fast enough on my own. Any news on that other crowbar?" Hoshino asked.

"No. Can't seem to find the damn thing. I knew it was in here somewhere?" Nakajima said.

"Weren't we using it to help move that T-95 the other day?" Tsuchiya, the team's driver, said poking herself out of the driver's hatch.

"I think we did. That means it's either in the deep storage area, or in the tank sheds." Nakajima said, almost face palming. "Alright," she said "Here's what we're going to do. Duck team, your going to stay here with us and wait for them to come up the west side of the mountain. Turtle team, I want you to wait on the north side at the base of the hill. Once you hear the shooting, I want you to come up behind them and take them out."

"Who died and made you queen?" Momo said, a little annoyed at being told what to do.

"Relax Momo-chan. It's a good plan. Besides, not like we have a lot of options." Anzu said jumping back down into her tank. The Hetzer drove off down the hill and found a small defilade behind some trees that would conceal them nicely. The other two tanks found a few bushes to use as cover and faced the western slope, and the approaching tanks. A few minutes passed, then the girls began to hear the sounds of Anglerfish, and Hippo teams' engines off in the distance.

Miho stuck her body out of the Panzer IV's hatch as the tank began to role up the hill. After a while the summit began coming into view. It wasn't long before Miho noticed that something wasn't right. The tanks that they saw were not where they saw them. The next thing she saw was the barrel of the Tiger P's eighty-eight millimeter cannon sticking out of a bush. Miho quickly ducked back down into the tank, slamming the hatch closed behind her. "Incoming!" she yelled to her teammates before there was an ear shattering BANG that split the air. The eighty-eight millimeter round slammed into the side of the turret and tore off the armored skirts that were welded on to the sides. Hana quickly turned the turret to face the tiger and took a shot into the bush. The shell slammed into the tracks of the tiger, immobilizing it. Mako quickly reversed the tank as the I-Go moved forward over the bush it was hiding behind and took a shot at the exposed turret side. The shot glanced off the top of the turret and the I-Go was taken out by a well-placed shot by Hippo team's StuG. assault gun into the front of the little tank. Hana took another shot at the immobilized Tiger, hitting it on the turret ring. The tank began billowing black smoke and its white surrender flag popped out.

"That's two." Said Miho.

"So where's the Hetzer?" Asked Yukari. Miho paused in thought. Then it hit her as she heard the clattering of tank tracks out side. "Behind us!" she said aloud. Hana began turning the turret as Mako gunned the engine and moved the tank forward as fast as it would go. The Hetzer fired and missed by mere inches. Hana finally got the turret around and fired another shot. The movement of the tank caused the shot to go wide and take out a tree behind its intended target. Momo took another shot that also missed and the Panzer IV disappeared behind another bush where Mako stopped and began turning the tank around. Meanwhile, Hippo team had managed to turn themselves and around was almost facing the Hetzer. The Hetzer also began turning itself to face the StuG. But the Hetzer was the first to fire. The shot bounced off the front of the tank destroyer before the StuG. returned the favor. The shell slammed into the Hetzer's front and took it out. The white flag deployed and the battle was over.

"That was a close one." Hana said.

"Yeah. Looks like we're getting better." Miho said.

"Great driving, there Mako-san!" Yukari said giving her friend a pat on the shoulder.

"Alright, lets get back to the tank sheds." Miho radioed the remaining tank destroyer, and the two began head back to the tank sheds, listening to nothing but the clattering of their tracks.

* * *

"So, what did you think?" asked Captain Chono.

"I think their tactics are unusual, they're over confident, and they take foolish risks," Kenji started, "But they're persistent, they're accurate, and they're effective."

"Also, Anteater team was having trouble with their gear shift when they got caught out in the open." Chono said.

"That explains it. And I can't help but wonder if their performance was effected by our presence?" Kouri added.

"It wouldn't be surprising. Attempting to make a good first impression can interfere with performance." Akio added.

"I still don't know how my men are going to react to this. I have grown in my respect for the sport, but boys will be boys." Kenji said.

"We'll just have to earn their respect." said Chono.

"I have a few ideas, but I'll wait and see if they're needed. We'll worry that after our presentations next week. We have around three months to get everybody working together properly. That's not a lot of time." Kenji said. "But, if this team lives up to its reputation, we may be able to pull it off."

"So, we start next week?" asked Chono.

"Hai. We should rendezvous at these coordinates." Kenji said writing down a set of coordinates for a location somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and handing it to both Akio and Chono.

"I look forward to it." Chono said. As the group headed out of the room.

* * *

_A little shorter than usual but I was hit with a bit of writers block. So I figured I get it over with. Plus I said I would introduce the two OC's Got. The only two I might point out. Here they are:_

_Marissa Kejii- Bomber Pilot_

_Description: White bob with green Highlights. Scar over left eye (Car accident). Grey eyes._

_Specialty: Leadership_

_Traits: Doesn't trust people accept her team. Wants to win._

_Favorite Quote: Don't underestimate the unknown. It will always surprise you._

_Backstory: Grew up in a middleclass family good parents, good house. Mother was killed in a car crash when she was 10 when a drunk driver hit their car. Marissa survived with a scar over her eye that doesn't affect her vision, and a burn scar on her left arm. Father was a chef who taught her how to be a good leader. Was killed in a mugging when she was 11. Spent the next five years in various foster homes, and learned not to trust people. When she was 16 she joined the Oorai Coed academy's Hikouki-dou team. Been doing it ever since._

_Luna Cole- Tank Commander_

_Description: Looks like Mako but with blue highlights. Blue eyes._

_Specialty: Leadership_

_Traits: More energetic than Mako. Likes cats. Fearless. Disappears often._

_Favorite Quote: Yay I walk through the shadow of the valley of death I shall fear no evil, for I am the badest motherfucker in the valley._

_Backstory: Born in Tokyo to a businessman and a nurse. Is fluent in French and English. Developed a habit disappearing due to her liking her privacy. Would often wonder around the city by herself and took an interest in parkour. Due to her fearless attitude, she enrolled in Oorai coed high schools Hikouki-dou team where she became a B-26 Marauder pilot, and learnt to pilot a B-25 Mitchell._

_So these are both from Lemanruss669. If anybody wants to send me some more you have until the next chapter **of the story** is posted (i.e. an update that adds to the story line). And since the actual competition is coming up I am accepting countries to participate. I'm probably going to be holding this mostly in europe, and there's probably going to be a bit in Australia. But so far what I'm considering doing is to have alliances between countries, one Axis and one Allies. The Axis team is (So Far) Russia, Germany, US, Finland, and Britain. Allies were going to be Japan, France, Australia, Ukraine, Italy, and Poland. With the possible inclusion of Canada, and Norway and any other countries you guys suggest. My limit will be n more then ten on each alliance, and once again, deadline is by the publication of the next chapter of the story. Also, if you guys want to here the rules as far as safety, and alliances go because I'm not yet willing to reveal how I'm doing the battles, just PM me or leave it in the reviews and it will not count as a chapter of the story, more like a PSA so it will **not** be part of the deadline. So, I think that's all I have to say, please fave&amp;follow and R&amp;R, no put downs, as usual. And as always guys, Semper Fi carry on._


	8. Working Together

_Sup guys! That took a little longer than expected, which is why this is a bit longer. So I wasn't sure how to do brief snap shots of the training like they did in the anime (Sorry guys. Rookie here.) I did the best I could, and I liked the way it came out. Also a huge shout out to severstal for helping me out with some ideas you'll be seeing later in the story. And another heartfelt thank you to for sending in a few more OCs which we will be talking about at the end of the chapter. Also, unfortunately I have to stop taking OCs because the deadline has passed. So If you wanted to send me one, then I'm sorry, but I gave you guys ample opportunity. :(_

_Anyway guys, I think that's all I have to say for now, so I'll see you at the end of the chapter._

* * *

**Working Together**

Over the next few weeks, the Sensha-dou team was busy teaching the new students how to drive and operate their tanks. The team had also gotten a shipment of new tanks, largely thanks to Saunders high school, who sold Oorai an M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight, and two M-24 Chaffee's for a fair fee as a favor for Oorai considering their position as the Japanese National Team. Oorai girl's school also had enough money to by an M-5Stuart reconnaissance tank off the Internet. None of the new tanks had been named yet, for there was still trouble determining if the whole alliance would be able to work together.

The Hikouki-dou also struck gold in terms of equipment. Searching through deep storage on their ship, the Nishimaru, they managed to find Two P-51 Mustangs and a P-38 Lightning. The school was also able to buy a B-17 Flying Fortress, and a B-29 from Saunders Aeronautical school.

"Why the hell did we buy these?" asked Hiro.

"They call it a flying Fortress for a reason. It can give as well as it takes. We can hit their airfield, and take out their air power. Or, If we have our backs to the wall, fly this thing into a their fighters. We might be able to take a few of them down with us?" Akio replied jokingly.

"Even your not that crazy, Akio-chan. Bomber versus fighters? Fighters win hands down." Hiro said.

"True, but they wouldn't be expecting it, would they?" Akio said, actually putting some thought into the plan.

"Akio!" Hiro said.

"Relax, I'm Kidding." Akio said, " On top of bombing, their large payload makes them Ideal for supply carrying. Plus, we can drop them into the battle directly instead of fairing them to a holding area."

* * *

On the Sensha-dou fields, the team was having un-expected trouble getting the T-95 to run. Turns out a few key parts of the engine and suspension were missing.

"Shit!" Reijin, an engineer from the boys' team, said under the tank trying to fix the suspension.

"I thought you were good with machines?" Hoshino said working on the engine.

"No, I'm an engineer, not a mechanic. More specifically I'm a demolition specialist." Reijin responded.

"You can put things together, can't you?" Hoshino asked.

"Only if you want them to explode afterwards." Reijin said half jokingly.

"You're telling me you've never worked on something like this before?" Hoshino asked.

"I've worked on my grandfathers jeep when I was little. Never suspension. Besides explosives, engines are my specialty." Reijin said.

"You want some help?" Hoshino asked.

"Yes, please." Reijin said.

Hoshino walked over to where Reijin was working.

"Yeah, we're definitely missing some parts. Looks like a few bolts are missing from the suspension bars." Hoshino said while refereeing to a blueprint.

"What size?" Reijin asked.

"20 mm." Hoshino said. They rummaged around the sheds until they found the size they needed and bolting them in.

"How's the engine coming?" Reijin asked.

"The butterfly valves are jammed on three of the cylinders." Hoshino said.

"Need some help? Like I said, engines are my specialty." Reijin said.

"After to explosives." Hoshino teased.

"C'mon, two's better then one?" Reijin said with a grin.

"Fine." Hoshino conceded.

* * *

The next month was filled with training. The students all had to put in extra study hours, and were expected to bring their grades up to no less than an A- and they would probably lose a few weeks out of their vacation, but it was a necessary sacrifice.

For hours on end, the Sensha-dou teams practiced formation driving, accuracy, loading, map reading, and maintenance and repairs.

The infantry was much different. The infantry units had begun tank hunter training. Beyond learning how to use anti-tank weapons, the units began learning the basics of guerilla warfare. The training was modeled after the panzer jaeger units employed in the hedge grove country after the D-Day invasion, and was reserved for the top ten percent of the class, and it was volunteer only. Unfortunately, at the time they were not ready to train with real tanks, so wooden silhouettes supplemented the steel beasts.

The fresher recruits trained as regular infantry. Everyday they began with Physical Training, then marksmanship, and hand-to-hand combat.

"I'm tired!" Some would complain during the daily PT. There was definitely no lack of complaining among the fresh recruits. But most of them enjoyed the self-defense classes during the day.

"Watch carefully." Kouri said as he and an assistant squared off in a fighting stance. The assistant was armed with a training knife while Kouri was unarmed. The assistant lunged at Kouri with the knife, but Kouri side stepped, grabbing the boy's arm with both hands, one hand on the boy's wrist.

He pulled the boy in a sweeping motion, while sticking his leg out in front of him and taking him to the floor. Kouri quickly got to his feet with the knife in hand.

"That's one method of disarming an opponent. You try." He said to the class. The students practiced the move for five minutes before beginning another lesson.

"This is how to defend when you get attacked from behind." Kouri said.

The assistant took a position behind Kouri then grabbed him from behind.

"From here, you can use your elbow and hit him in the gut, or in the face." Kouri said, while demonstrating each move.

"From there, you're going to step inside of his stance, grab his arm, and drop your weight, while pulling him over you." Kouri demonstrated the move, and the man hit the ground with an audible *Thud*.

"From here, you can deliver a variety of blows. You can punch him in the face, you can kick him, or you can simply walk away if you think he's had enough. Just as long as he doesn't get back up and come after you." Kouri finished the demonstration with each of the finishing moves he described.

"Only use these techniques when it is absolutely necessary. And during competition, it is advised that you refrain away from causing any serious damage to your opponent." Kouri finished as the class continued to practice.

* * *

Miho sat in a in the commanders coupla of her tank. She scanned the field with her binoculars looking for any sign of the enemy tanks. To her left were the M-24 Chaffee and the M-5 Stuart to her right. The other Tank on her team was Leopon team's Tiger P. The enemy team consisted of the other M-24 Chaffee and the M4A3E8 "Easy Eight" Sherman, and those of Duck, and Hippo teams.

Both Leopon and Turtle teams sat on the ridge behind them giving them effective over watch. The Panzer, Chaffee, and Stuart sat halfway down the ridge concealed behind bushes and camo netting in a sort of ghillie suit draped over the tanks.

Miho scanned the ridgeline and spotted the outlines of the enemy Chaffee, and Duck team's Type-89B hiding under a tree halfway up the opposing hill.

"I see the Chaffee, and Duck team's Type-89B." She said to the other teams through the radio.

"Well let's go and get them!" said the commander of the Chaffee who was one of the students from the Heishi-dou team who transferred to the Sensha-dou team to bolster their numbers. He was a 5'6" 16 year old boy with a runner's physique named Kenichi "Kenny" Ieyasu. His entire crew was also made up from other transfers from the boys' school.

"We don't know where the other tanks are. If they're on over watch like us, we'll get ripped apart." Miho said into the radio, remembering all to well the events that had nearly lead to their defeat at the hands of Pravda.

"Fuck that! I bet they can't hit a moving target. Especially one as fast as me!" Kenny spat back. At that moment the Chaffee and the Stuart both broke cover and began to flank left around the ridge, managing to stick behind the tree line

"Open fire!" Kenny said into the radio. Both tanks began firing wildly at the two tanks hunkered down beneath the tree. Both tanks scrambled for cover before traversing their turrets and returning fire. The Chaffee and the Stuart raced up a dirt path to where the enemy tanks were hiding. Kenny quickly told his driver, a 5'5" boy roughly the same age named Hondo Tashida, to stop and both tanks ground to a halt. Kenny placed Duck team's tank in his crosshairs and fired. The round slammed into the tanks turret, killing it with a final *POP* of the white flag. The Stuart fired a shot into the rear of the enemy Chaffee and killed it to. Kenny poked out of the commander's hatch with a grin stretching ear to ear.

"Told you they couldn't hit us." He snickered into the radio before noticing the smoke rising up on the opposite ridge where the Panzer and the Tiger had been. Kenny's mad dash had thrown up a dust cloud that gave away Miho's position to the StuG. on the enemy team who had taken them out. The Tiger P had managed to get a shot off at the StuG. but missed and was taken out by a well-placed shot from the Easy Eight.

Kenny scrambled for his binoculars, pulling them to his eyes and discovered in his rush he had them facing the wrong way. He quickly flipped them around and began scanning the area to see if he could spot the remaining two tanks.

A shot rang out and the Stuart burst into flames and the white knock out flag deployed above it. Kenny ducked back down into the turret and slammed it shut after him.

"Reverse!" he yelled in a panic before the tank shook violently from a shot from the StuG. Kenny heard the *POP* of the white flag above him, and he knew it was over.

* * *

Kenny was a good Heishi-dou athlete, but he refused to listen when any of the girls attempted to help. They ignored much of the advice given to them, say for the basic operating procedures of the tank, and they would disregard orders routinely while on the battlefield.

This showed Miho that they obviously had a lack of respect. But she wasn't sure if that was the sole reason, or if pure laziness was a factor as well.

Despite having been training for the past three weeks, the Heishi-dou boys still struggled with the most basic of maneuvers. More than once the boys had blown cover and left the rest of their team holding the bag, often times outnumbered and out gunned. The crew of the Easy Eight was a fair bunch, just unsure of them selves and would sometimes crumble under pressure.

Today however was not the case. They had performed very efficiently, and had done everything correct. But a chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and today, Kenny had dropped the ball, and got the entire team killed.

Miho had decided that enough was enough. She had to speak with Kenji. Kenny was his teammate first, so if anybody knew why the boys on the Sensha-dou team were acting out, it should be him.

* * *

Suzuki was walking through the mess hall looking for a place to sit. As she was walking, one of the new students bumped into her.

"Why don't you watch where you're going you stupid whore!" the boy spat.

"What did you call me?" She spat back instantly.

"I called you a stupid whore. You and the rest of your friends. You don't know what real combat is." the said.

"Oh and you do? That's mighty bold considering you've been here what, a week? I saw you in that live fire drill we had. You practically crapped your pants. So don't be telling me about combat. Alright?" Suzuki sneered and turned to leave.

She felt a hand grab her shoulder and spin her around, causing her to drop her plate. As she looked up at her attacker she was met by a swift right hook to her face. She responded instantly with another right hook to the boy's jaw, nocking loose a few of his molars.

"Enough!" A voice shouted over the crowd. The group parted to reveal a particularly angry Sadoko standing in the middle of the isle with a clip board.

"Both of you, come with me." She said leading the two into the student council's office.

* * *

"How could you be so disrespectful!" Sadoko yelled at the top of her lungs at the boy who started the fight.

"That's none of your business." The boy said shooting Suzuki a dirty glance.

"I'm the head of the public morals committee , an-"

"Not in my school you're not!" The boy shot back, cutting Sadoko off.

"Why you little-" Sadoko began.

"Sono-san!" Hitoshi Takizawa interrupted before Sadoko could finish her sentence. At that moment Kenji walked into the room.

"What's going on?" Kenji said, eyeing the boy standing int he center of the room.

"Sono-san here was just telling Edo-san to show respect towards his teammates." Hitoshi said.

"I'll deal with you in a minute." Kenji said to Edo.

"This delinquent was harassing Suzuki-san in the lunch area." Sadoko said.

"I'm well aware of the details Sono-san." Kenji said.

"Then what are you going to do about it?" Sadoko said giving Kenji a dirty look.

"At the moment, that is not something I want to trouble you with. I appreciate all you've done so far, but this young man is my problem to deal with. Meanwhile, I suggest you escort Suzuki-san back to the Zuikaku for to be disciplined as you see fit." Kenji said, maintaining a strict military bearing.

"So you're just going to let him walk?" Sadoko shot back.

"Sono-san. I said nothing of the sort. I will deal with this boy my way, while you do the same."

"She's the victim." Sadoko said.

"That's for you to decide. But in my family, such action as this holds both sides accountable." Kenji said.

Sadoko waved for Suzuki to follow her as they both exited the room. Sadoko was still mad at Kenji, for she thought the instigator of the fight was going to get off the hook.

As soon as the two left, Kenji turned his attention to Edo.

"Don't think I've forgotten you." Kenji said.

"Why do you show such a lack of respect towards our teammates?" Kenji asked.

"Because they don't deserve my respect. If you want my respect, you have to earn it." The boy said.

"Hmm... And tell me. How have I not earned your respect? How have they not earned your respect? They agreed to help us in our plight even though it was not their own. How could you possibly think like that about them. Do you think yourself better than them?" Kenji said, keeping his voice calm yet assertive.

"But I am. Their team had no training, and won out of pure luck." The boy said.

"You're off the team." Kenji said swiftly.

"What?" Edo asked.

"You obviously can't work as a team so you're off. Fired, so to speak." Kenji said.

"But... but you can't do that!" Edo pleaded.

"Indeed I can. For more than just this incident. Your test scores are lacking, your PT scores are too low, and your marksmanship is terrible. And now this. Not only did you attack a woman, but a senpai as well. Members of my team are expected to show mature, and gentlemanly behavior. This includes respecting your team, and those appointed above you, no matter what. If you cannot swallow your own pride then I have no use for you here." Kenji concluded.

Edo turned to leave.

"Not so fast. I still have to decide your punishment." Kenji said.

"You said it yourself, you're not the boss of me." Edo said.

"Doesn't matter. I'm still the disciplinary advisor." Kenji said, "You'll spend the next three weeks detention scrubbing out every bathroom on this campus with this toothbrush." Kenji said.

"That's my toothbrush." Edo said.

"Exactly. Don't worry, I'm only making you clean the major ones. The individual dorm ones you don't have to worry about." Kenji said. Edo snatched the toothbrush from his hand and left the room.

"Kenji-san." Hitoshi said.

"Aye, Sir." Kenji turned to him.

"This is not the only incident of this happening. You must put an end to this pointless bickering, at once. If you can't, I'll find someone who can." Hitoshi said grimly.

Kenji nodded and exited the room.

* * *

Kenji heard a knock on the door to his room/home office.

"Come in," he said. Miho opened the door and walked in and bowed.

"Kenji-san, we need to talk." She said.

"Is everything okay?" Kenji said.

"No. Some members of the Heishi-dou team have shown a certain unwillingness to follow orders." Miho said.

"Well I can see where they're coming from. I was dealing with this boy who started a fight with one of your team members." Kenji said.

"Yes, Sadoko told me about that." Miho said.

"I had a feeling she would. She doesn't like me, does she?" Kenji asked.

"Don't worry, she means well, and will come around eventually." Miho said in an attempt to comfort her friend. And it seemed to work.

"You said you understood where they came from?" Miho asked, returning to the subject.

"Well, when I first met you, I had many of the same feelings. You must remember, very few people have been tested like these boys have. They've seen the replays and what they witnessed is nothing short of a miracle. A virtually un-known school comes out of nowhere and wins the championships with very little training against veteran teams, with better equipment. It's almost to good to be true. In order for that to be possible, the team in question would need an unbelievably good commander, or the other teams just suck to begin with. Unfortunately, many people will agree with the latter." Kenji said.

"True, we were lucky. But it takes a lot more than blind luck to win a championship. We may not have had as much training as the teams we faced. But we were an effective team. All the training in the world couldn't have made up for that. That's what we have to strive to be. Not just our teams as a hole, but you and me as well." Miho said.

"You're right. But unfortunately, my men are to blinded by prejudice to understand that for themselves. I will have to tell them. If I make clear the points you just made to me, they will surely follow." Kenji said.

"Thank you, Kenji-san." Miho said.

"No. Thank you." Kenji said smiling.

* * *

"ATEETION!" Kenji boomed standing on the stage in the auditorium.

Miho sat all the way in the back next to the exit door where nobody would notice her.

"It has come to my attention, that certain members of this members of this team have been slacking, and neglecting their instructors. I feel it's my job to remind all of you, that this is our last chance to save this school?" Kenji continued.

"So? We failed last time. What are our chances of succeeding in an International National tournament?" came a voice from the crowd.

"Look, I know that we haven't been together for long. And we lost in the championships. But, we still made it to the finals before we went down. That in itself is a victory. One earned through pure heart and skill. In our darkest moment we banded together, and you chose to follow me. You trusted me then, and I'm asking you to trust me now. All of you, and this school, they gave me a second chance. Now that's what I'm offering you, here and now. Will you lie down and accept defeat? Or will you fight, and maybe, just maybe, bring this school another day in the spotlight, and be remembered as the men that could?"

"YEAH!" The team chanted.

"ALRIGHT THEN!" Kenji said, "In order to do this, we have to trust our team members, and they have to trust us. Like it or not, we cannot do this alone. We have to band together with the members of the Sensha-dou and Hikouki-dou teams if we want to win this. I know that some of you don't like the idea, that you think they're untested. But make no mistake, when we asked them for help they came to our aid. They volunteered to help us, nobody forced them. Tested or not, they answered the calls for help from another down on its luck, no name school. How many of the other tankery teams would've one that, eh? So we need to trust them, and give them a reason to trust us. Can you do that? Can you put your differences aside for the greater good? Because if not, then you can walk yourself right out that door." Kenji said, gesturing to the door for emphasis.

The room fell silent as the students looked around at each other. Just waiting to see who the first person to leave was, and wondering if they would follow. No body left.

"Alright then. Now I want each and every one of you to remember what you all signed on for from here on out. We're going to train hard, and we're going to train fast, because in a few weeks, we will be facing the Australian team. This will prove to our allies, that we can hit just as hard as they can. That we can go the distance. And it will prove to ourselves, that we belong in this alliance.

"LET'S DO IT!" The students chanted.

"FOR OUR SCHOOL! BANZAI!" they all cheered.

"_Australia, here we come."_ Kenji thought to himself.

* * *

_Yes that's right boys and girls, Oorai is coming to Australia. I'm going to level with you, I have not been anywhere outside of the states, or outside of Hawaii and Cali. for that matter. So if any Australians who are reading this would like to offer a helping hand in therms of a setting for a battle, I'm going to have it in the outback. Also, this goes for anybody really, If this story goes to your country and I say or imply something that is offensive or incorrect, then feel free to PM me and set me strait. I don't want to offend anybody here. Obviously I'm going to have the characters saying a few insults at each other here and there, but hopefully nothing to extreme._

_Here are the descriptions for _ 's OCs:__

_Akecheta Wolfclaw_

_-Male_

_-16_

_-6'0"_

_-Short Black hair_

_-Blue eyes_

_-Native American (only non Japanese character)_

_-U.S. transfer student_

_-Courageous, but very shy and unsure._

_-Tank gunner (preferably panzer IV, but its up to you)_

_Komoru Hiyahsi_

_-Male_

_-16_

_-5'6"_

_-Ear length Black hair_

_-Black eyes_

_-Japanese_

_-Introverted, doesn't like to listen_

_-Tank loader_

_Daichi Fujimoto_

_-Male_

_-15_

_-5'9"_

_-Short Brown hair_

_-Brown eyes_

_-Japanese_

_-Likes to boast, cares highly for himself, but holds great respect for his superiors_

_-Fighter Pilot_

_Sora Mizushima_

_-Female_

_-14_

_-5'0"_

_-Dirty blonde hair, always in a ponytail, lower back length_

_-Green eyes_

_-Japanese_

_-Very, very shy, unsure and easily hurt feelings_

_-Tank Driver_

_Nozomi Mizushima_

_-Female_

_-16_

_-5'7"_

_-Black hair, always in a bun_

_-Black eyes_

_-Japanese_

_-Has great care for others, Sora's older sister and protector_

_-Tank radio operator._

_Rei Takahashi_

_-Female_

_-15_

_-4'4"_

_-Orange hair, always like Elsa's in Frozen (sorry for comparison)_

_-Hazel eyes_

_-Japanese_

_-Always positive, see the good in people, helps people through their problems_

_-Fighter Pilot_

_So, that about raps up everything I have to say for now guys. Please Favorite and Follow, and feel free to R&amp;R. No put downs or insults. Only constructive comments. And as always guys, Semper Fi carry on!_


	9. You're One of Us Now

_Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been posting on here for a while, but this is the reason. Have you ever been in a position where you've been writing, mostly, __fairly short chapters thinking that they're fairly long, then be swiftly reminded what a long chapter is? That's sort of what happened here. I had a serious bout with writers block, then decided to write this. So this is more of me messing around with ideas and styles so it doesn't contribute to the plot to much in my opinion. But I decided to post it because it's been a while, and I wanted to get another chapter in before the battle with Australia. This chapter went through many, many, many, many, many, many, MANY renditions before I went 'screw it' and wrote this. Keep that in mind with your reviews. Well hope you like the chapter and I will see you at the end of the page._

* * *

**You're One of Us Now!**

The next two weeks were filled with serious training. Not only were the Heishi-dou tank hunters finally able to practice with actual tanks that would shoot back. But the insubordination issue was also put to a swift end. Kenny's team were to give up their M-24 Chaffee, and hand it over to the members of Anteater team, in hopes that the Chaffee would be easier to control. The same goes for the team of the Stuart, who were commanded by a Honjo Yoshimoto, a 5'9" rugby player from Yokohama.

The Stuart was handed over to the members of Duck team as part of the punishment for disobeying orders to the extent that they did. Resulting in what was, basically, a tank swap between the four teams. The other part of the punishment was the former crews of the Chaffee and the Stuart were to repair any mechanical problems on the I-Go and the Chi-Nu, on top of cleaning the weapons in the armory for the next week.

Training excelled afterwards, the new crews getting situated quickly and the insubordination ceased to exist.

"Are you sure?" Kenji asked Kouri.

"I'm positive. I don't belong in a tank. I belong on the ground. I think that new transfer might do the trick though. What's his name…Ache…Akecheta Wolfclaw?" Kouri said.

"Alright. Akecheta-san! Front and Center." Kenji called at the group assembled in front of him. A Native American 16 year old boy stepped out of the line and came trotting over in his exercise fatigues. The boy stood at 6'0" dead even with Kenji and Kouri.

The Native American teen kept his black hair cut short. His blue eyes looked on past the two officers as he stood at attention.

"Are you Akecheta Wolfclaw?" asked Kenji in Japanese. Akecheta didn't respond. Unbeknownst to both Kenji and Kouri, Akecheta spoke very little Japanese. Which proved to be a problem with his teammates.

"Answer me, boy!" Kenji said in Japanese, growing impatient at the boy's silence

"I n-no speak J-Japanese." The boy said in very broken Japanese.

"No. No you do not." Kenji replied in his accented English.

"So I understand you want to be in tankery?" asked Kouri.

"Yes sir." Akecheta said softly.

"What's that?" Kenji said, turning his ear towards Akecheta.

"Yes, Sir!" Akecheta said louder.

"Good, come with me Akecheta-san." Kenji said.

"It's okay if you don't use honorifics on my name. It might make things easier." Akecheta said shakily.

"Thank you. The same goes for us. What kind of name is 'Wolfclaw' anyway?" Kenji asked as they approached the ferry station to take them to the Girls' ship.

"It's Apache. It means 'Bearer of the Wolf Spirit'." Akecheta replied.

"You're Apache?" asked Kouri.

"Yes, Sir, both of my parents. My grandfather was a 'code talker' in world war two." Akecheta said.

"Really. Can you speak Apache?" asked Kouri.

"Yes. Fluently. My parents taught me since I was little." Akecheta said.

"Interesting. That may come in handy latter. Do you think you could teach others? Maybe we can set up a code talker team?" Kenji said.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Apache doesn't have a written language. So the only way to learn it is to grow up speaking it." Akecheta said.

"Hmm… to bad. But still, it's a pleasure having you on the team." Kenji said.

"Glad to be here." Akecheta said.

"So why'd you go to a school in Japan if you can't speak Japanese?" Kouri asked.

"Well, my family wanted me to study abroad. So did I, so we heard about this school, and saw admission was fairly cheap, so they sent me hear." Akecheta said.

"Well, unfortunately you may not be here for long. But on the bright side, you'll probably get to see the world while you're here." Kouri said.

The group walked the rest of the way to the ferry station in near silence. They boarded the boat and headed strait for the Girls' school ship. Twenty minutes later, the boys were standing at the Sensha-dou sheds walking up to Miho who was running through a checklist of some kind next to the T-95.

"Miho-san!" Kenji called over. Miho paused what she was doing, waved, and slowly jogged over.

"Are you busy?" Kenji asked in Japanese.

"Not really, just looking for a replacement gunner for Kouri-san." Miho said. Also speaking Japanese.

"Sorry about that. How's that coming by the way?" Kouri said.

"It's okay. We still haven't found a replacement yet." Miho said.

"Well, look no further. This is Akecheta Wolfclaw. He's interested in taking tankery. He's an excellent shot as well." Kenji said, placing his arm on Akecheta, "Unfortunately he doesn't speak Japanese, but I'm sure he'll learn."

"Hi, I'm Nishizumi Miho. But you can call me Miho. Welcome to our Sensha-dou team, Akecheta-san." Miho said in English shaking the American's hand.

"It's good to be here. You don't have to bother with the honorifics though." Akecheta said nervously.

"Hai." Miho said.

"Yukari-san will show you to your tank. I need to talk to Kenji-san" Miho said.

Akecheta walked over to the sheds where Yukari met him and began showing him around the massive tank.

"I'll meet you at the boat." Kouri said before leaving.

"What do you need to talk about?" asked Kenji.

"There's a strategy meeting later this week, to discuss our battle with the Australian team." Miho said. Both of them returning to speaking Japanese

"Is that all?" asked Kenji.

"Hmm? Oh, no. I was wondering how the training goes on your side?" Miho asked.

"Fine. The biggest obstacle is fitness, as expected, but your transfer students seem to be in peak physical condition. It's the new students that I'm worried about." Kenji said.

"I heard you had parachute training with the Hikouki-dou team. How did that go?" Miho asked.

"It went fairly well. Again, a lot of the people were hesitant of jumping out of a moving aircraft. I still have a bruise from the jolt of the rip cord." Kenji said.

"And there's another training session on Thursday, correct?" Miho asked nervously.

"Yes. That's mainly for the transfer students and anybody here who wants to participate." Kenji said.

"I might do that." Miho said.

"How are things on your end?" Kenji asked.

"Good. No more insubordination to deal with. Although I'm sure they still have their doubts." Miho said.

"Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be fine." Kenji said.

"It's a shame that Kouri-san decided to quit tankery." Miho said.

"Yes, well. He claims that he belongs in the thick of it. Where the metal meets the meat." Kenji said.

"I see. You'd probably make a great tank commander." Miho said.

"Claustrophobia, remember?" Kenji said half jokingly.

"I also remember Yukari saying something about a loss?" Miho said. There was a long pause.

"I'd rather not talk about it. It's a sensitive topic in my family." Kenji said.

"I'm sorry. But whenever you're ready, I'll be here." Miho said.

* * *

"Get ready!" Kenji roared over the roar of the C-47's engines. The men in the aircraft stood up as the light next to the door turned red.

"Stand up!" Kenji shouted. The rest of the men in the aircraft stood up

"Hook up." Kenji said, ordering the men to hook up their static lines.

"Equipment check!" Kenji shouted.

"Ten okay!"

"Nine okay!"

"Eight okay!"

"Seven okay!"

"Six okay!"

"Five okay!"

"Four okay!"

"Three okay!"

"Two okay!"

"One okay!" Kenji said as his men confirmed they're equipment was good to go. He looked out the open door of the aircraft, into the clear blue sky and two other C-47s flew in a triangle formation.

4000 feet below, and three kilometers ahead of them was the Nishimaru. Their target for the jump was a field near the ship's stern for the softest landing possible.

* * *

"Why are we doing this?" Hana asked tightly clenching her harness.

"We have to train with them incase we find ourselves in an infantry situation." Yukari said.

"Yes. We prepare for every possible outcome." Erwin said.

"I get that. But what about this? When will we have to jump out of a plane?" Hana said.

"Yeah. It's not like we'll be flying a tank anytime soon." Saori said.

"How often do you get to go parachuting for free?" Anzu said.

The plane hit a brief moment of turbulence, causing Hana to tighten her grip on her harness.

"Do I have this on right?" Hana asked fumbling with her harness.

"Here," Kouri said getting up from his seat and walking over to help, "Let me help."

"Thank you." Hana said as he checked the straps and made sure they were buckled correctly.

"Remember," Kouri said, "The line will deploy automatically. When that light goes green, don't hesitate. We have to complete the jump in about ten seconds, otherwise we'll overshoot the landing zone by several kilometers."

"Why do we have to do this?" Hana mumbled to herself once again.

"Initiation." Kouri said.

"What?" Hana asked.

"For most of the people on the other planes, this is just an exam, or another part of training. For you tankers, it's an initiation. Once you get through this, you'll be one of us." Kouri finished.

Hana cracked a smile at Kouri who returned the smile without a glint of fear in his eyes.

"This isn't your first jump, is it?" Hana asked.

"No. We sometimes do this during matches. It's better than waiting on either side of the arena and heading towards each other." Kouri said.

"Oh…" Hana said, out of words.

"Hey," Kouri spoke up once more, "If your primary doesn't open pull this chord, it will activate your secondary. And on the off chance that you do miss the ship. Pull that latch and your harness will detach. Then activate your floatation vest." Kouri lightly tugged on the designated straps as he went.

"You'll be fine. Trust me, it's not so bad." Kouri said sitting back down chewing a piece of gum.

"Get ready!" The jumpmaster called to the rest of the plane's occupants as the light turned red.

* * *

Kenji waited patiently at the door of the aircraft. The other two aircraft held the only other members of the Sensha-dou team that haven't done the jump. The others were instructed not to tell them about it. He looked back at the students in his plane and saw Miho standing in the middle of the line, a bead of sweat rolling down her brow.

Before he could say anything the light next to the door turned green, signaling it was time to jump.

"Jump!" He yelled as he threw himself out of the aircraft.

* * *

"Jump!" The jumpmaster said as the light turned green and he hurled himself out of the aircraft.

The line of people behind him quickly followed, and got shorter, and shorter by the second until it got to Saori who was right in front of Hana.

Saori froze, looking out of the doorway at the long drop of before her. Hana remembered what Kouri had said about having to jump quickly.

"Sorry Saori-chan." She said as she gave her friend a push out of the aircraft and quickly followed after her. She immediately felt the air turbulence as she jumped and thought for a brief moment that her shoes would be ripped off her feet, she counted to four in her head before she reached the end of the static line and felt a hard jolt that knocked the wind out of her for a second as the line pulled her parachute free and deployed her chute.

She felt her speed dramatically decrease as the parachute did its job and she gently floated down to the carrier. The first thing she noticed after the drone of the engines past was how silent it was. She looked around and admired the beauty of the morning sky and she wished she could stay up here forever.

She quickly snapped back to reality when she realized she had drifted off course slightly and was headed for a group of trees. They had gone over jump procedure all week long, but they hadn't exactly covered the "How to get out of a tree" part in great detail.

Hana quickly grabbed the reins of her parachute and steered herself away from the trees. She floated gently down on the breeze towards the field, and prepared herself for impact.

* * *

Kenji jumped out of the plane and was struck by the turbulence of the air rushing over the aircraft. It only lasted a brief second before it was over, then he felt the static line go taught, but didn't feel his parachute deploy. He quickly spread his arms and legs to control his descent as he quickly pulled his secondary. Nothing.

He looked back at his parachute and realized that somehow the primary chute was preventing his secondary from. He realized he probably should've gotten rid of the primary chute before attempting the secondary, but there was no time to dwell on that.

He quickly pulled out his knife and went to work cutting away the straps of his useless primary chute. Working quickly he managed to cut away his primary allowing his secondary to deploy.

The jolt from the canopy opening shook the knife from his hand and it fell to the ship below.

"_Damn,"_ he thought to himself, _"That was my favorite knife!"_ A small price to pay for his life.

He looked towards the drop zone and realized he was way off course and was coming in to fast for a major course change. He had opened his chute to low, and at this speed it would shatter his hip, and probably break his back.

"_Time to think fast again."_ He said to himself.

Kenji looked around desperately for a way he could land without killing himself. At the moment he was gliding over a bunch of homes and housing complexes and was headed towards a bunch of trees that _would_ kill him if he hit them. Then he saw it.

"_The pool!" _He nearly shouted to himself.

Just ahead was a house with a swimming pool that he could use to land in. By the looks of it, it was about 15 feet deep at its deepest. Definitely deep enough to break his fall, and not his legs.

He knew that landing in water was a bad idea, and was advised against, but he stood a much better chance of surviving the impact if he hit the water and not the ground. He figured that a small chance of survival was better then a large chance of death.

He pulled on the reins of his parachute and aimed for the pool. Gliding down its length and into the deep end. He hit the water with enough force to knock the wind out of him, and he quickly began to sink as his chute landed on top of him and filled with water, which began to drag him down.

Kenji quickly unhooked his harness and carefully untangled himself from the parachute. By this time his lungs were burning, and he was running out of breath.

By the time he found his way out of the chute, his lungs felt like they were on fire, and his vision began to darken. He fought to get to the surface but there was no air in his lungs, and his gear was far to heavy. He tried to pull the chord on his life jacket, but it was too late and he blacked out.

As he drifted lifelessly in the water a figure jumped into the water and swam down to him and pulled him to the surface. As soon as they broke the surface, the figure was revealed to be Miho. She pulled him out of the pool and onto the pavement before beginning chest compressions.

A moment later Kenji coughed up the water that had worked its way into his lungs, and he began to breathe heavily, filling his lungs with precious oxygen.

Just then the owner of the pool came out of the house and looked at the two sitting on the concrete.

"Call an ambulance!" Miho shouted before making sure once again Kenji was breathing.

* * *

Hana braced herself for impact, but a sudden gust of wind pushed her faster then she was expecting and she landed with a hard thud and tumbled around before being dragged by her parachute.

"Hana-chan!" Hana heard Saori yell as she ran over.

"Saori-chan!" Hana replied, still trying to untangle herself from under the parachute.

Once her head emerged from under the chute, she saw Saori running towards her.

"Are you okay?" Saori asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry for pushing you." Hana said.

"Don't be. If anything, it should count as payback for kicking you in the shoulders when we started Sensha-dou." Saori said with a smile.

"Thank you." Hana said before trying to get up. She felt a sharp pain in her right ankle when she put weight on it and instantly collapsed.

"Hana-chan! Are you okay?" Saori said, catching her friend.

"Yes. It's my ankle. I think I sprained it on the way down" Hana said.

"Hana-san!" Kouri said, running over to Hana.

"That was great! Not bad for you're first jump. How do you feel?" Kouri said.

"She sprained her ankle." Saori said.

"Oh… Let me see." Kouri said.

He looked at the injured limb before saying, "I don't think it's sprained, I think it's dislocated."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Saori asked.

"Yes, she'll be fine. Medic!" Kouri called out to their designated medic, Reiki.

Reiki quickly came sprinting over to the three carrying a medical kit.

"What do we got?" Reiki said.

"Injured ankle, could be dislocated." Kouri said.

Saori looked up at the young man and their eyes instantly locked.

"Hello… I'm Takebe Saori." She said. Reiki just stared for a moment.

"And…you are?" Saori asked.

"Single…I-I mean… A-Akamine Reiki. Medical officer." Reiki stuttered.

"Could we continue this another time?" Kouri interrupted, attempting to suppress a laugh.

"Right…Okay, let me see," Reiki said, picking up Hana's ankle.

"*Ouch*" Hana yelped.

"Yep, definitely dislocated." Reiki said.

"Should we relocate it?" Kouri asked.

"That's up to her." Reiki replied.

"Do it." Hana said.

"Are you sure?" Kouri asked.

"Yes." Hana replied.

"Alright, Kouri hold her down." Reiki said.

Kouri placed his hands on Hana's shoulders as Reiki held her ankle in his hands.

"Okay, on three…One!" Reiki said suddenly and popped the ankle back into place.

Hana tightened her grasp on Kouri's arm as she struggled to suppress a scream.

"What happened to two and three?" Hana asked.

"Two...three." Reiki said with a smile.

* * *

Hana sat in the hospital's orthopedics ward getting her ankle wrapped. Once the doctor had finished wrapping her ankle, her friends rushed through the door.

"Are you alright Isuzu-chan?" Yukari asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just hurt my ankle." Hana said.

"I heard Kenji-san landed in a pool and nearly drowned." Saori said.

"Is he okay?" Hana asked.

"I don't know, I haven't heard anything else." Saori said.

"He was passed out last time I saw him. He was floating in the pool. Luckily he had deployed his life preserver." Miho said.

Just as she finished her sentence, Kouri walked in with a small tree in his hand.

"Hi." He said.

"Hi." Hana replied.

"Uh… I wanted to give you this." He said handing the tree to Miho.

"As a gift." Kouri said.

"Thank you." Miho said holding the small hokidachi style elm tree in its small pot.

"It's a cute little tree!" Saori said suppressing her excitement.

"It's a bonsai tree." Kouri said.

"Where'd you get this?" Miho asked.

"I made it. It took me a while to." Kouri replied with a somewhat sheepish smile.

"You made this? It's so beautiful. You know…Hana-chan does flower arrangements. You two have something in common." Saori said smiling at her injured friend.

"It's beautiful." Hana said.

"Thank you." Kouri said before turning to leave and stopping abruptly saying, "Oh…I almost forgot. I also wanted to give you this."

Kouri pulled a silver "Jump Badge" out of his pocket and handed it to Hana.

"What's this?" Hana asked taking it from his hand.

"We call it a 'Jump Badge'. We use give it to individuals who have completed our jump training. It's not really anything more then symbolic, but still." Kouri said.

"What does it mean?" Hana said as she realized that her four friends also wore the badge as well.

"It means, you're one of us now." Kouri said with a smile.

"Oh, by the way Kouri-san. Have you heard anything about Kenji-san?" Miho asked.

"Yes. The doctors say he's fine, He passed out in the pool but Miho-san managed to pull him out. He's in the ER and they say he should make a full recovery by the time our match with Australia comes around. Assuming he gets plenty of rest." Kouri said.

"Should we go see him?" Miho asked.

"Yes. He should be waking up any minute now." Kouri said.

Hana grabbed a pair of crutches handed to her by the doctor, and the group set off down the halls to the ER.

* * *

Kenji opened his eyes as he slowly sat up in the hospital bed. His body ached, and his head throbbed, and unbeknownst to him, his right eye was bloodshot.

He adjusted the bed to lift himself up and looked around trying to figure out how he ended up here.

Just then, Kouri walked into the room with Miho, Hana, Saori, and Mako following closely behind.

"How are you feeling?" Kouri asked looking at Kenji's bloodshot eye.

"Great, for someone who nearly drowned." Kenji said.

"Great. The doctors said that you should make a full recovery, and you should be out of here by tomorrow. You suffered from a near static apnea blackout and they want you should take it easy for the next few weeks." Kouri said.

"Awesome. Am I expected to be able to compete in the Australia match?" Kenji asked.

"Yes. If you take it easy." Kouri replied.

"Alright _dad_." Kenji said jokingly.

"Good. By the way, you remember Miho right? She pulled you out of the water." Kouri said pulling Miho over.

"Really? It seems I owe you one. Thank you." Kenji said, leaning back against his bed.

"It wasn't anything special, really." Miho said blushing.

"True. But had I remained in the water I stood a high risk of drowning. Especially if I turned over. My face would be submerged and I would've drowned." Kenji said.

Miho smiled and nodded, realizing that Kenji was more or less making up excuses to be thankful.

"I see you all got your jump badges. How does it feel?" Kenji asked.

"Great!" They all replied.

"Yeah, Hana did a good job. One of the recruits froze up in the doorway, and Hana pushed her out before we overshot the DZ. They got it on camera to." Kouri said causing Hana to blush slightly.

"Don't worry about it. Getting your foot through the door s one thing. Next you have to prove you belong there. You did that admirably. And you even got a few of your own battle scars. The other option would've been falling off the ship or ending up in my position. So you probably did that person a favor." Kenji said catching Saori looking at the ground for a moment.

"Let me guess, Saori-san, it was you wasn't it?" Kenji said, "Don't worry about it. First jumps are rough. On my first drop I wet myself in the doorway. I ended up drifting for about five minutes with pee running down my leg. I ended up in a farmers field three kilometers away." Kenji said causing everybody in the room to laugh.

"The point is, everybody gets scared of something. It's not important that you're scared. It's important that you overcome that fear." Kenji said.

"Thank you. Oh…I almost forgot. I found this on my way over here." Saori said pulling a _Buck_ pocketknife with Kenji's initials out of her bag.

Kenji almost sprang out of bed at the sight of the knife.

"You found it?" He said in astonishment.

"Yeah." Saori answered.

"Where?" Kenji asked.

"It landed on a wooden table outside a tea shop." Saori relied.

"Thank you." He said as he fought back the tears the welled up behind his eyes.

* * *

"He nearly dies in this exercise and he wanted us to take part in it?" Sadoko ranted, "You think that he would be professional enough to make sure his equipment was safe and prepared properly. But instead he nearly dies teaching a skill that we will likely never need? And this is the man that is to be our partner in this endeavor?"

"It was a freak accident Sadoko-san. Nobody could've anticipated it. Every sport has its own risks, especially ones like ours. The important thing is that he's alright and nobody else got hurt." Miho said from atop her tank.

"Still. All the time we've wasted learning a skill we won't end up using. It makes no sense." Sadoko said.

"It's better to be safe then to be sorry. Besides, I think he was trying to prove something." Miho said.

"What?" Sadoko asked.

"That we are up to the challenge." Miho said.

"I thought he would've known that since the get-go." Sadoko said.

"Maybe. But I don't think he was trying to prove it to himself." Miho said cleaning out the barrel of the cannon.

* * *

Sora Mizushima sat at the lunch table with her sister Nozomi. They sat in relative silence as the people next to them watched the same video _again_.

The video was entitled _"Girl Pushes Girl out of Plane."_ It was a video taken by one of the students from the school newspaper of Hana pushing Saori out of the plane.

"Do they have to watch it again?" Sora said fixing her long, dirty blonde hair back into a ponytail.

The video had gotten a great response from all three schools. It was the first irrefutable piece of evidence that many of the boys had seen that their female counterparts could do what was necessary when the situation called for it. Also getting great publicity was the story of Kenji's rescue by Miho Nishizumi.

"Why? Is something bothering you?" Nozomi asked her younger sister.

"Nothing." Sora said in a very disappointed voice.

"I know that tone. Something's bothering you, I can tell." Nozomi said.

"It's just that…I wanted to go skydiving to." Sora said.

"We've been through this. You're to young. You heard what happened to Kenji-san! If that were to happen to you, I would not be able to cope with it." Nozomi said.

"You don't have to be so up tight about everything." Sora said.

"I know. But I promised mom that I would keep you safe. That's what I intend to do. Besides, I didn't go either. You don't see me complaining." Nozomi said giving her sister a playful nudge with her shoulder. Sora smiled and nudged her back.

"Do you mind if we sit by you?" a voice asked from behind the pair.

Nozomi turned around to see the two boys and a girl standing behind them.

"Not at all." Nozomi said.

The three boys grabbed chairs and sat down around the table. The group sat in silence for a while before one of the boys spoke up.

"So…My name is Hiyahsi Komoru, I'm the loader on Anteater team's Chaffee." Komoru said.

"Sora."

"Nozomi."

"Nice to meet you. Which tank are you guys in?" Komoru asked.

"I'm the driver for the Easy Eight." Sora said shyly.

"I'm the tank's radio operator." Nozomi said.

"Well, these are my friends, Fujimoto Daichi, and Takahashi Rei." Komoru said.

"Hi." Daichi said.

"Hi." Rei said.

"So…what do you guys do?" Nozomi asked.

"I'm a fighter pilot, so is Daichi-san. We fly the P-47s." Rei answered.

"We call them Jugs." Daichi said.

"Right. We fly top cover for the bombers. We may even be doing a few strafing runs for you guys." Rei said.

"I thought you weren't allowed to strafe ground targets?" Nozomi said.

"Not with anything bigger then a .50 cal. If it were just armor, then that would be one thing. But we can't hit infantry with anything bigger then a .50 cal. Other then that we have these cluster bombs that we can drop. But we have to be specially loaded or CAS" Rei answered.

"What's CAS?" Nozomi asked.

"It stands for close air support. It means that we attack targets that are close to you guys." Daichi responded.

"So, why can't you use anything bigger then a .50 caliber machine gun?" Sora asked.

"Because that's the largest round that the _"infantry safe'_ rounds come in. They don't have anything bigger for soft targets. Unless you're willing to wear ridiculous amounts of body armor." Daichi said.

"Or ride in a tank." Rei said.

"Right." Daichi confirmed

"Why not have universal ammo types?" Sora asked.

"Beats the hell out of me. They probably never thought of it. If they have, they probably have something like that, but just haven't shared it with us." Rei said.

"Well, none the less, at least we won't be alone." Nozomi said.

"That's right. We'll be like your guardian angels." Rei said taking a bight of salad.

* * *

"So what's the plan?" Kenji asked after sitting down in the student council's room.

"The Australian tankery team is made up of mostly Mk. VI Crusaders, M-3 Grants, and Matilda IIs. They are effective in the anti-tank roll, but their M-3 Grants will be the only real threat from the tank corps to our infantry. But they are outstanding in the anti tank and tank hunting roll." Momo said.

"What do we know about their infantry and air power?" Miho asked.

"Their air power consists mainly of P-38 Lightnings, CAC Boomerangs, Brewster Buffalos, and Bristol Beaufighters, and a few scout planes. Although we don't know how many. They're famous for their arial defense capabilities." Akio said laying down a picture of each aircraft as she listed them.

"What do you mean, ariel defense?" asked Momo.

"One of the things we do in Hikouki-dou is Close Air Support missions, or even escort missions. Basically, we're given an objective and we have to take it. The Australian team is famous for it. Many consider them the best at it." Akio said.

"So if they take the town and they have their air support up. We stand very little chance of taking it back." Momo said.

"To make matters worse, we were never to good with the interception tactics. Our strong points are defense, or long range ground attacks. Very few of us are good dogfighters." Hiro said glumly.

"Their infantry number nearly 700 strong, and are naturally trained in desert combat, and camouflage and concealment. They're notorious for lightning fast, overwhelming surprise attacks. They're also very stubborn on the defense. Their special forces squad is modeled after the New Zealand long range desert group, and are infamous for their use of jeeps for lightning fast harassment attacks." Kenji said.

"How do they do that?" Miho asked.

"They employ modified trucks, or jeeps and they attack quickly, neutralizing as many enemy soldiers as possible, then they retreat and wait for another opportunity. Quite ingenious actually. Under normal circumstances, regular infantry would never be able to catch them. But this time we have tanks." Kenji said.

"The map we're dealing with is 150 square kilometers large. So hunting them down is not an option. This match is going to last five days, which gives us more time then usual." Anzu said.

"Yes, but we still have to capture the three flags in the town in the center of the field. With an unknown number of tanks and aircraft, we may not be able to hold it for to long. Especially when we only have so few tanks. To work with." Miho said.

"So taking the town immediately isn't an option, what's our other option." Akio said.

"The only other way to take win would be to completely annihilate their forces. Which we don't have the man power for." Kenji said.

"What if we let them take the town?" Miho said.

"What do you mean." Momo said.

"If they take the town, they have to keep part of their main force there to protect it. At least enough to match our strength. That means that we'll only be fighting part of their main force. From there, we can do what we've always done. Choose where we fight. We won't be engaging the enemy as often, but we'll be grinding down their forces enough to give us a fighting chance."

"We only have five days. Not only will that be an excruciatingly long time for us to hide, but there are so many unknowns. Night patrols, spotter craft, what if they're tracing our signals?" Momo said.

"But she's right!" Kenji said in surprise.

"We'll never win in a head on engagement. Our only chance is to hit them and run." Kenji said.

"Just like the 7th armored division in North Africa." Erwin said.

"So, we have a concept, all we need is a plan." Kouri said.

"Excuse me," asked James Shimabukuro, "what type of anti-tank weapons are allowed?"

"Depends. Some of the richer schools can field bigger weapons, even AT guns. If this was Kuromorimine, we might be able to field eighty-eights. As it is we can afford, maybe, three 37mm AT guns, plus any hand held AT weapons like Panzerfausts, or Bazookas that we already have. Why?" Miho asked.

"Because I have a plan, strait out of Rommel's hand book." James said. He was sort of the history buff of the Heishi-dou team, and captain of the team's mortar platoon.

"What are you thinking?" Erwin asked.

"The sword, and the shield." Jake said.

"I'm listening..." Erwin said. Her mouth contorting into a cheshire smile.

* * *

_So, like I said, wasn't feeling to creative with this piece. It's more of a stop gap thing really. I also wanted to take an opportunity to introduce some new characters, thank you for the OCs. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned him, and his partner, before but just in case, they did get it into me prior to the deadline for OCs. Anyway, that's all I have to say for now, please R&amp;R and feel free to F&amp;F. Only constructive comments, no put downs. And as always, Semper Fi carry on._


	10. Game Day

_Hey guys, sorry I haven't been updating this story recently. I started this chapter around the same time I posted the last one and I've been just overwhelmed with school work. This quarter is winding down to an end, and I just finished my ACT, so I should be more active here again. This was a pain to write, by the way. I had so much trouble deciding how I wanted to write this, and I did use headers for every scene change. They're not particularly good, but they let you know where this is happening, and when. Some of them might be off, if so, just PM me and let me know. Also, I did try to write in accents, but I didn't persist in doing it, so it's somewhat sporadic. I'll probably change it later. Anyway, that's all I have to talk about right now. So I'll see you guys at the end of the page._

* * *

**Game Day**

**Great Sandy Dessert. West Australia 0900**

Miho, Anzu, Kenji, and Akio unloaded from the jeep and walked down the main street of the mock up town. The town was about 500 square meters large and was made of very real looking houses. To the untrained eye, it would've looked like a livable town.

The main street was flanked on either side by white buildings. Most of the buildings were two stories, and looked as if they were made of granite or stone. Many of the houses in the town looked the same, and none were over three stories high, say for a make shift Church.

However, upon close inspection it would be revealed that the entire town lacked any sort of infrastructure except the roads.

There was no power, no running water, no plumbing, nothing. Even the rooms themselves lacked any sort of furniture except a couch and a dining room and a few beds here and there, but nothing more.

The masonry was in fact a cheap sort of cement that was lightweight, yet strong.

The group moved towards their Australian counter parts and prepared to begin the formalities.

They approached a group of four, two boys, two girls, all wearing a brown slouch hat and desert colored khakis.

"G'day mate!" The blonde female tank commander said in her accented English as she extended her hand, with a big grin on her face. Her name was Tracey.

"Hello, you have a beautiful country." Miho said in English, shaking her opponents hand.

"Yeah, she's a beauty." Tracey said looking around the town.

"My names Miho."

"Tracey. Most folks call me 'Trace'."

"I've heard a lot about your team." Miho said.

"And I've heard a lot about yours. These are my team mates." Trace said.

"I'm Jenny, Trace's second in command." Said the red head standing next to trace. She stood a good three inches higher then Trace, who is about as tall as Miho.

"Name's Bruce. Infantry commander." Said a six-foot tall boy with black hair, and a boxer's build.

"Will. People call me 'Dingo'. Flight commander." Said a five and a half foot tall dirty blonde boy.

The group shook hands with their opponents as they introduced themselves.

"I'm Kenji, Infantry commander."

"Akio, Flight Commander."

"Miho Armored commander.

"Anzu, student council, and second in command."

"Nice to meat you," Trace said, "Let's have a good match. No playing dirt or anything like that."

"Agreed." Miho said.

"Good luck to you," Dingo said, "You'll need it."

The two groups parted directions and headed back to their respective jeeps and returned to their units.

Once the teams were properly geared up and at their starting positions, the announcer came onto the radio.

"_Alright,"_ the announcer lady said in English, _"Let's make this a nice clean game. I want everybody getting home in one piece. You've all read the rules, and I expect each and every one of you to act as professionals. Is that clear!"_ There was a slight pause as if the announcer was expecting an answer, _"Good. Alright, Let the game begin!"_ she said, and the radio cut out.

* * *

**1000\. North East of Town.**

The Australian convoy raced through the desert as fast as the trucks would allow them. Their objective was to take the town as quickly as possible, and they were already under two kilometers from the town. They had been on the road for about an hour and had lost precious time repairing one of the vehicles that had a radiator malfunction. They crested the ridge to the north east of the town to find the flag poles used to capture the town were empty, meaning the enemy was not in control.

"Dingo, this is Jenny, we're approaching the town, what's the situation with our air support, over?" Jenny said into the radio.

"We'll be on station in about five mikes. Skies look clear from here, but our recon craft spotted a concentration of enemy vehicles to the north west of your position. Up near _Devil's Blunder._" Dingo replied.

Devil's Blunder was a small ridgeline, about two hundred meters long, and fifty meters high, about six kilometers from the town.

"Copy that. Any idea what kind of heat they're packin'?" Jenny asked.

"Negative. The scout took fire and pulled out. We have no Intel on troop strength or equipment."

"Copy, we'll send the scouts to take a look," Jenny changed stations to talk to her scouts, "Jess', Riley, take your teams and scout out the ridge at 015-236."

"Copy that!" Came the response of a male voice. Off to her left, four Cromwell cruiser tanks shot off down the road at top speed.

* * *

**1030\. Near Devil's Blunder.**

With a top speed of over sixty kilometers per hour, the brand new Cromwell tanks were the ideal scouting tank for the desert. Their thin armor, and poor guns made them vulnerable however.

Unbeknownst to Miho and the rest of the Japanese team, the Australian team had purchased several new tanks, including the four Cromwells, and five Churchills in order to be able to surprise their opponents.

The Cromwell covered the open ground quickly and was at the ridge in a mater of minutes.

"2-1, this is 2-3. I don't see anything out here." The boy in the second tank said into the radio.

"Copy. Keep your eyes peeled." The boy in the lead tank said.

Several minutes passed, and the boys split into groups of two and changed positions regularly. They worked their way around the ridge and eventually found themselves towards the eastern side of the ridge.

"I got something at bearing 2-2-0." One of the boys said.

"Copy, 2-2-0." The commander of the lead tank said.

"Mate, I don't see anything out there." He said after glassing the area for a brief moment.

"Half way up the hill, by the large group of trees. I swear there's something there." The other boy replied.

"Copy. It looks like… Holy Shit! It's a fucking Tiger!" The commander yelled as the Tiger P's barrel spat smoke and flames.

The round flew threw the air and slammed into the side of the second Cromwell turning it into an inferno.

"All tanks, Tiger P spotted on East Ridge. We got their position, now Haul Ass!" The commander said and the remaining tanks split shot off across the dessert.

"Too righ' mate! We took some small arms fire on our end as well. There's definitely somebody up there." The other tank replied.

* * *

**1045\. Devil's Blunder. East Ridge.**

"Nice shot." Nakajima complemented her gunner's skills as the empty shell clattered to the floor.

"I was aiming for his turret." Hoshino said jokingly.

"Hey, I thought it was an awesome shot." Said Carl, the team's radio operator and bow gunner.

"You think that got their attention?" Suzuki asked.

"Definitely. They'll be back, and they'll be bringing their entire force down on top of us." Carl said.

"Well don't just sit there," Nakajima said, "Get on the horn and tell Nishizumi-san what's coming."

"Roger," Carl said fiddling with the dials, "Angler, this is Leopon. Be advised, we engaged enemy Cromwells near our position, on the east slope of hill 50. We got one, but three others escaped." Carl said.

"Cromwells? That wasn't in their equipment file?" Miho replied.

"Well, that binder was put together using past information. These must be knew tanks we're dealing with." Carl replied.

"Hai. Keep alert. Who knows what else they have in store for us." Miho replied.

"Copy. Be advised, we are relocating so you may not hear from us for about ten minutes."

"Roger. Stay safe."

* * *

**1120\. In The Town.**

"Are you sure it was the Tiger P?" Trace asked the Cromwell commander.

"Yes, Ma'am. Definitely had a Tiger outline." The boy replied.

"Alright, thanks." She said dismissing the boy.

"The other tanks said they saw small arms fire further west from where they spotted the Tiger." Bruce said.

"How many?" Trace asked.

"Well, they didn't get a confirmed count, but they estimate no less then sixteen. They took some fire from AT weapons and bugged out before they could get an accurate count."

"What kind of AT weapons?" Trace asked, somewhat surprised.

"Bazookas they think. It was hard to tell." Bruce said.

"So, they're traveling light? The question is where are they going." Trace said stroking her chin.

"The tank commander said there might have been more of them behind the hill they were taking fire from, but he doesn't know how many." Bruce said pointing at the area on the map.

"So there could be more behind the hill?" Trace said.

"Yes, but we're not sure. By the time our scouts got there they were long gone."

"Damn. We'll secure the town fore now. I want patrols set at two hundred meter intervals every two hours."

"Yes, Ma'am."

* * *

**1130\. Western Edge of Town.**

"Command, this is Archer 0-1, radio check, over." Kouri said into the SCR-195 radio.

*Static*

"Command, do you copy?" Kouri said.

"Archer 0-1, say again your last. You are coming in broken and unreadable." Kenji responded.

"The enemy has taken the town. I say again, the enemy has taken the town." Kouri said.

"Copy that. Get as much intel as you can, and pull out." Kenji replied.

"Copy. Out." Kouri said.

Kouri packed up the radio and climbed to the top of the sand dune he was hiding behind. He took out a pair of binoculars and peered through them. Then he picked up a pencil and sketchpad and began to sketch out rough drawings of the buildings.

At the moment there were three other boys at various points around the town doing the same thing he was doing, gathering intel on unit strength, and equipment, as well as gathering information about the defenses.

The drawing was not particularly detailed, but one could at least interpret it correctly. Once he finished, Kouri climbed off the sand dune, packed up the radio, the sketchpad, and slung his M1 Grand sniper rifle over his shoulder. He was just north of the town, and was several miles away from the teams make shift camp.

"This is going to be a long walk." He said to himself as he began the long trek back to camp.

* * *

**1135\. Somewhere in the Desert.**

"Any word from Kouri-chan?" Miho asked, entering the small tent acting as a radio station.

"Yes, he just made radio contact." Kenji replied.

"Good. When can we expect them to be back?" Miho asked.

"Two maybe three hours. I know Kouri was only taken halfway, and then hiked the rest. Team three should pick him up around here." Kenji said, pointing at the map.

"Alright. I hope they'll be alright in this heat." Miho said.

"Don't worry. They're tough. Plus they packed a lot of water." Kenji said, although he was also worried about the heat.

The temperature outside had gotten to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was already hard to keep cool in the shade.

"How are things going with the tanks?" Kenji asked.

"Fine. The heat isn't helping with the Tiger P's engine problems though. The Chi-Nu and the I-Go are also being affected by the sand." Miho replied.

"Are we set for tonight?" Kenji said.

"We should be. Leopon team, Rabbit Team, and Dragon team in the Easy Eight are ready." Miho said.

"Alright. Now all we have to do is wait then?" Kenji said.

"And pray they're aircraft don't find us. But if Akio-san can hold up her end of the plan, then we may yet stand a chance." Miho said.

* * *

**1200\. West of Town.**

Akio led her flight of Sturmoviks across the desert landscape at top speed.

"Alright, we should be approaching the target area any minute now. Stay frosty." Akio said.

"Copy. So glad we finished with training. Tie to get some real action." Haru said.

"Easy young grasshopper. Remember what happened last time you got cocky?" Jenna said.

"Don't worry about me. I got your back." Haru said.

"And guess who has his back?" Ryō said.

"Yeah. Best tail gunner in the squadron." Haru said.

"Second best." Kimi said.

"Target three o'clock. Looks like an…Uhh…screw it, fat boy with three turrets." Haru said.

"It's an M3 Lee. Relax, they're on our side." Jenna said.

"Right. I knew that." Haru said, embarrassedly.

"Well at least you've got you're head on the swivel. Keep it up." Akio said.

"Roger." Haru said getting refocused.

"Does anybody else have to pee?" Haru said after a long silence.

"Jeez, you really can't stay quiet for five minutes can you?" Jenna said.

"It's a legitimate question." Haru argued.

"I told you to go before we left."

"I never piss before a flight. It's bad luck." Haru said.

"Really? That's disgusting." Jenna replied.

"Hey, it's worked so far. Why tempt fate?" Haru said.

"Alright, settle down. I want all heads on the swivel. No more talk about-"

"Town, nine o'clock!" Jenna's wingman, Eiji said.

"Copy, beginning attack run." Akio said.

The four Sturmoviks began banking right and formed a single file line. As they drew closer four M18 gun motor carriers with quad mount .50 cal machine guns targeted them, as well as several machine gun emplacements around town.

Streams of tracers sailed past the four bombers as they closed the distance to the town, aiming for the vehicle pool near the center of town, just off Main Street.

"This flack is getting thick." Kimi said as several rounds struck the Plane's thickly armored hull.

"Don't worry, this baby can take much worse than this." Akio responded.

The planes continued their cores as their tail gunners took shots at the spread out ground troops.

"Bomb drop in three, two, one…DROP!" Akio said as she dropped her payload of PTAB anti-tank bombs. Hundreds of the weapons were dropped from each bomber and completely covered the lot with explosions, several bombs detonating in air, destroying every vehicle in the lot. Unfortunately all the tanks except for three M3 Grants, and four Matildas, were not in the lot, but it was still a devastating blow.

The for planes turned around and headed back to their airbase.

"That was intense." Kimi said as the fire began to fade away.

"Yeah. Makes you think what we'll face when we hit the other teams." Haru replied.

"Wish we took out more of 'em. Would make the work for our girls on the ground a lot easier." Ryō said.

"That's not our priority. We got the footage, right Eiji-san?" Akio said.

"Affirmative. Got the whole thing on tape." Eiji replied.

"Good. Now let's get going, I think Haru pissed himself." Ryō said.

"I did not!" Haru protested.

"Dude, I'm right behind you. I can smell piss." Ryō teased.

"I really had to go, alright." Haru said.

"Still think it's a bad idea to use the bathroom before a flight." Jenna teased causing the entire flight to laugh.

* * *

**02000\. South Side of Town.**

Night had fallen at last. Unlike the scorching heat of the day, the night had dropped to a fairly extreme cold. The temperature had fallen to the high forties, and frost had begun to develop on some of the plants.

Kenji lay prone on the hillside, his head just barely skirting the cusp, allowing him to just see over the edge. He cycled the action on his Thompson SMG and picked up the radio.

"Lightning 1-0, this is Ronin 0-1. I need illumination at 215-312." He whispered.

Seconds later, a flare launched into the air and illuminated the entire area with a bright greenish-white light.

The hill then erupted with a hail of tracer fire and muzzle flashes as every man on the line opened fire. Several of the Australian's infantry were cut down without ever firing a shot.

Three tanks then rolled over the top of the hill and began to pound the area with HE shells, hitting several buildings, and sending wood and false concrete flying.

Saori racked the town with fire from her MG-42 hull mounted machine gun, while Yukari did the same with the coaxial machine gun. The overwhelming fire cut down many of the opposing infantry that were standing guard, before they had time to sound the alarm.

Some of the Australians managed to get into their fighting holes and return fire with two M2 .50 caliber machine guns.

"Miho! Target: White building, 11 o'clock, second story. Machine gun in the window!" Kenji called out one of the machine gun positions.

"Roger," Miho replied, "Yukari-chan, load HE. Hana, rotate the turret six degrees to the left."

"Roger." Came their collective response.

Hana quickly swiveled the turret to target the window.

"Gun ready!" Yukari said.

"Ute."

*BOOM*

The Panzer's gun belched fire, and kicked up the sand around it. The muzzle flash turned the surrounding night air into day for just a brief second.

The shell sailed through the air. It was supposed to detonate in mid air should a human target be in the shell's path, but for some reason this one didn't. Luckily for the recipient, the shell flew off the right about five feet and took out the wall next to the window, instead of the person behind it.

"What happened?" Hana asked, recognizing the failure in the safety mechanism.

"Must have been a malfunction with the proximity fuse. Good thing it was off center." Miho replied.

"Now we know why the release forms hinted towards possible death." Mako said glumly eliciting a sad sigh from the rest of the crew.

"Miho! New target 11:30. First story." Kenji's voice sounded from the radio.

The crew immediately pushed the thought from their mind and targeted the next building.

Fifty meters to the left of Anglerfish team, the newly named Dragon team in the Easy Eight was also engaging targets. Luna Cole had her head sticking out of the commander's hatch, with her hand pulling the trigger of the .30 cal Browning M1919 machine gun above her, while a trooper operated the .50 cal behind her.

The tank had four machine guns, the bow turret gun, the coaxial, and the fore mentioned commanders gun, and the .50. When all four guns were firing, it looked as if the front of the tank was spitting fire like a dragon, hence the name.

By this time, the flare had gone out. The muzzle flashes from the various weapons were the only source of dim light that pierced the night, before receding into darkness again, and again, and again.

The ambient light from a few fires was enough to give the gunners a reference to fire at.

"Gunner, rotate right 30 degrees. Target the muzzle flashes at 200 meters. One round HE." Luna said.

Her gunner traversed the turret exactly as instructed and the loader called out "Gun-up!"

"On the way!"

*BOOM*

The exploded in mid air creating a bright flash that chased the night away, illuminating the front of the building and several soldiers running to their battle stations.

At this moment, the Australian's armor showed up with an M16 Halftrack rolled around the left flank following three M3 Grants while a Churchill and a Matilda rolled around the right flank. Another column of Lees rolled up the center street.

The M16 rolled off to the left, and began to rake the enemy positions with its quad-mounted .50 cal machine guns. The muzzle flashes pierced the night as red tracers hammered the Japanese positions.

"Luna-san, take out that .50!" Miho said, as red tracers raked the hillside.

"Roger," Luna replied, "Gunner, target that .50 cal!"

*BOOM*

The round impacted the side of the armored vehicle and was stopped by the carbon spall liner. The pyrotechnic charge went off, casting a dull light on the surrounding area as the white knockout flag deployed.

"All units pull back. We're finished here." Miho said as Mako revved the engine and pulled the tank back.

The machine guns quickly fell silent as the attacking team fell back and the sounds of chaos returned to silence.

* * *

**0600\. Town.**

"Damage report?" Trace said as the sun crested the horizon.

For fear of another attack the entire team had barely gotten more than four hours of sleep. Many of the fires had either been put out or had burned themselves out leaving charcoal in their wake. Black smoke still rose up in areas all over the town.

"Thir'ey dead, for'ey five wounded, one M16 gun carrier destroyed, three machine guns, and three buildings. One bloke broke his arm when they shelled the buildings, but he says he'll be fine." Jenny said.

"Alright. Is he sure he can carry on?" Trace asked.

"Bruce said he's a tough one. If he says he can continue, I see no reason to deny it." Jenny said.

"Good," Trace sighed, "We got any news from Dingo and his air patrols?"

"No, not yet. He ain't got shit. He says they've combed every inch of the desert, but he hasn't found them yet." Jenny said.

"They attack us in the dead of night, take out a half track, and disappear like ghosts? Something doesn't seem right." Trace said.

"Maybe she's using her regular tactics?" Jenny said.

"Maybe, but she usually baits her enemies into coming after her. And that's usually pitted only against tanks. On a scale like this, it's going to take a long ass time to actually do any real damage." Trace said.

"Well, you gotta admi' one thing. The girl's got some balls." Jenny said.

"And why do you say that'?" Trace said sarcastically.

"She ain' afraid to tickle the dragon's tail." Jenny replied, ignoring the tone in her superior's voice.

"Too righ' mate."

* * *

**0630\. Somewhere in the Desert.**

"How many have we lost?" Miho asked.

"Twelve dead, three wounded, no vehicles lost. One of our men is suffering from heat stroke and has been picked up by the EMTs. I heard he should be fine though." Kenji said.

"Thank goodness," Miho sighed, "Where do we stand on phase two?"

"Akio says they've located their airbase, and the bombs will drop this afternoon. We should be ready by 1500 if we want it to work." Kenji said.

"Good. How are we doing on camouflage?" Miho asked.

"Great, actually. The art club and magic club members are really showing their worth. We have units scattered n twelve different locations, and we're getting calls of their scouts flying right over us." Kenji said.

"Good. They'll come in handy later. How are the decoys coming?" Miho said.

"They're assembled, and will be in position within the hour." Kenji said.

"Good. Now we just have to wait." Miho said.

"And pray." Kenji added.

"…Hai." Miho said.

* * *

**0900\. Somewhere in the Desert.**

Anteater team and a squad of twenty troopers were camped out in dugouts, covered with canvas and sand. Anteaters new M24 Chaffee sat in a hole dug out in the side of the hill, with a sand colored canvas draped over it.

"Are you sure we're in a good spot?" Momoga asked nervously.

"I'm sure we're fine." Piotan replied.

"Yeah, as long as we remember to run when the time comes." Said the team's new loader, Sato, who was also part of the Magic club.

Although they were magnificently camouflaged thanks to the Magic and Art clubs from the coed school, it was made clear to relocate when ever possible, and leave no trace.

Since smaller units moved faster, the entire Japanese team was strewn across the desert,

"Pick a card." Sato said to Nekota, fanning out a deck of cards.

Nekota plucked one from his hand and looked at it. It was an ace of spades.

"Now put it back." Sato instructed.

Nekota followed his instructions and placed the card in the center of the deck.

"Now…"

"Do you here that?" Piotan interrupted the pair sitting on the turret.

The group paused for a moment and listened. Silence.

"It's probably nothing." Sato said returning to his trick.

Just as he turned around, an olive drab Bristol Beaufort crested the hill and flew directly over them before turning around and flying a circle around the group before taking off back to where it came.

"Not good! We've been spotted!" Nekota said.

"How can you tell?" Sato asked.

"Something tells me that if he didn't see anything, he wouldn't have flown a circle around us. Besides, we have to relocate anyway." Piotan said very mater of factly.

"Well what if we did get spotted and they've already sent word of our position?" Sato asked.

"Lets not stick around to find out." Momoga said.

The group quickly folded up the canvas tarps and stored them on a Duce and a half with the rest of the infantry on the second truck, and some in a jeep.

The tank drove out of its crater and Sato mounted the .50 cal back in its place, and the group rode off into the as fast as they could go.

* * *

**0901\. In the Sky Over Anteater Team.**

"Condor 1-1, this is Condor1-3. We have spotted an enemy platoon at 221-315. Over?" The pilot of the lone Beaufort said into his radio.

"1-3, this is 1-1, I read you loud and clear. We have a QRF team not to far from that position and can be there within eight mikes. Over?" Came the response.

"Copy. Be advised we are at bingo fuel, and are en route to base. We will not be in a position to assist, over?"

"Copy that 1-3. How many hostiles did you say there were again?"

"Six-plus foot mobiles with possible transportation and armor support. I can't be sure what kind of armor they have, but I did see multiple dugouts. Be advised, enemy is using camouflage, they're hard as hell to see, but they're there."

"Roger 1-3. Thanks for the heads up. Boomer 0-5 is en route to intercept. God speed. Out."

"Copy. Out."

* * *

**0906\. Somewhere in the Desert**

The Chaffee and the two truck rolled on for about five minutes before they heard the sound of tank engines on the other side of the hill. Their worst fears were realized, as the noise of the engines grew closer.

"Uhh…this is bad. Uh… f-fighting positions!" Nekota said, startled at the sound of her own shouting.

The infantry dismounted from the trucks as they drove off to the side. Some of the soldiers just decided to lay prone, while others attempted to dig a shallow fighting pit for a Vickers machine gun on the left, and an Bren gun on the right. Two soldiers with a Bazooka set up in the middle.

The jeep stet up just offset behind the tank with its machine gunner facing the hill.

Sato loaded an AP round into the breach of the M3 75 mm gun, while Momoga sighted the hill in front of them in her sights.

"Prepare to fire." Nekota said shakily.

Seconds felt like hours, as the sound of the engines grew ever closer. Just as the first tank's turret peaked over the hill Momoga fired. The shot sailed high over the turret and into the wild blue yonder.

"Blue on blue. Hold fire!" Came the voice of Noriko, captain of Duck team, over the radio in their new M5 Stuart Light tank.

"Thank goodness." Nekota exhaled heavily.

"Nearly took my head off." Noriko said as the tank drove down the hill. Just behind Duck team was Shark team in the Chi-Nu.

"We thought you were an enemy tank platoon. We got spotted about ten minutes ago and are relocating." Nekota replied.

"Same here. We got strafed not to long ago. We lost about ten guys, and Frog team in the I-Go." Noriko said as a truck full of infantry rolled down the hill behind their allies.

"So… shall we follow your lead?" Nekota asked.

"Sure. We'll proceed to gird 221-320. Then play it by ear." Noriko said.

"Hai!" Nekota said, giving the infantry the signal to mount up.

The group fell into a single file line with the Chi-Nu and the Stuart at the front, the trucks in the middle, and the Chaffee at the rear. Besides the sound of diesel and gas engines, and the clanking of tank tracks the day was calm and quiet. Many of the soldiers were talking about various Heishi-dou matches they've had, soccer games, rugby matches, girls, anything to keep their mind off the boredom.

In the tanks, some of the same conversations were taking place, although the commanders remained vigilant as the column moved at a brisk fifteen miles per hour.

"Do you remember your card?" Sato asked.

"Huh?" Nekota replied, taking her eyes off her binoculars.

"Your card I asked you to pick. Do you still remember it?" Sato replied.

"Yeah…it was a-"

"Don't tell me. I want to finish my trick later." Sato interrupted.

"Do you really think you'll be able to find my card after we reach our destination?" Nekota asked.

"Sure will. Just watch, you'll-"

"Enemy aircraft coming low to the deck. Eleven o'clock!" Noriko's voice crackled over the radio.

Seconds later, the ground shook as bombs and rockets landed around the column. Nekota poked her head out of the commanders hatch in time to see three P-38 Lightnings strafe the convoy, sending several soldiers flying off the back of the trucks.

The Deuce and a halves were knocked out and flaming. The remaining infantry jumped off their destroyed transports and took cover anywhere they could.

Some took cover under the destroyed trucks, while others hid under tanks or behind the sparse vegetation.

The P-38s circled around for another pass, destroying the tracks on the Chi-Nu, and finishing off a crippled Duck team in the Stuart.

After the second pass, the planes departed towards the south, leaving the convoy in ruins.

"Any survivors?" Nekota said poking her head back out of the turret.

"We have about thirty troops left with no transport. The Stuarts Knocked out, and the Chi-Nu is immobilized." One of the soldiers said.

"Contact!" someone else shouted.

Seconds later two jeeps drove around the corner and unloaded their Browning M1919 machine guns into the group. Most of the soldiers were cut down instantly, without a chance to fire back. Those who hid under the vehicles managed to return fire, to little effect.

Simultaneously, a machine gun position on the hill to the left of the convoy began to cut down the remaining Japanese infantry.

The Chi-Nu's seventy-five millimeter gun belched fire, and shot metal at the machine gun on the hill. The round detonated in mid flight, taking out the machine gun crew.

"Anteater team, we'll hold them off the best we can. I advise you get out while you still can!" The Chi-Nu's driver said over the radio.

"Are you sure?" Nekota said.

"Yeah. Now go. You're wasting time." Came the response.

The Chaffee's turret rotated around and the group began to reverse at full speed. Seconds later two more jeeps came around the corner, one of them boasting an M20 recoilless rifle.

The jeeps stopped and fired at the moving tank, missing by mere inches.

"Piotan-san! Gun the engine!" Nekota said.

The tank shot past the two jeeps just as the second shot from the recoilless rifle took out the Chi-Nu. Anteater team managed to dodge several more shots as the jeeps gave chase.

"Fire the machine guns!" Nekota panicked.

The two Browning M1919A4 machine guns opened up on the perusing enemy. The hail of bullets managed to knock out one of the vehicles before a final shot from the M20 finally put an end to the light tank.

The seventy-five millimeter rocket slammed into the front of the hull and shook the tank violently.

"Is everybody okay?" Nekota asked.

"Hai!" came the collective response of the crew.

"Hey, Nekota-san?" Sato said.

"Yeah?" Nekota replied.

"Is this your card?" Sato said, holding up an ace of spades.

* * *

**0915\. Somewhere in the Desert.**

"What's going on Saori-chan?" Miho asked.

"So far, we've lost three tanks as far as I can tell, and two infantry convoys to bombing runs." Saori replied looking up from her radio station.

"Where's our fighter cover?" Miho asked.

"They pulled back. They're getting ready for the raid." Saori replied.

"Is everyone okay?" Miho asked.

"As far as I can tell, there are no serious injuries. I do know that Anteater, Duck, and Shark teams were ambushed, but I have no idea how many of them made it out." Saori said.

"Why not?" Miho asked.

"Competition rules. No contact after being 'killed' unless it's an emergency." Saori replied.

"Oh… right. Tell everyone to hunker down and wait for the raid to take place. How's Rhino team doing?" Miho asked, referring to the T95 tank destroyer.

"They're in position with Turtle, and Hippo team on the ridge." Saori said.

"Good. We'll move to regroup under the cover of darkness." Miho said.

"Hai." Saori said before relaying the message.

* * *

**01000\. Japanese Airbase.**

Several miles away at the Japanese team's airbase the crew of four heavy bombers including a B-29, B-17, B-25D, and B-26 ran through their pre-flight checklists.

"Pre-flight checklist complete." The pilot of the B-26, Marissa Kejii, said.

"Roger that. We're good over here to." The B-17 pilot replied.

"Us too."

"Same here." B-29 and B-25D pilots both said.

"Alright. Tower, this is Eagle flight, we are prepared for takeoff." Marissa said.

"Copy that eagle flight, you are cleared to taxi to runway one. Standby for further instruction." The tower responded.

"Affirmative. May I ask what the hold up is?" Marissa asked.

"We're letting some P-47s to take off first to cover Miho-san and the rest of the ground forces. They got hammered by air attacks earlier, and they're on the move to regroup at Devil's Blunder." The tower responded.

"Copy." Marissa said, hiding the anger in her voice. How could they send part of _her_ escort to babysit the infantry? _Typical HQ bullshit_ she thought to herself.

"Something wrong?" Her American co-pilot, Peter, asked.

"Nothing." Marissa replied.

"You're pissed about the fighters?" Peter said.

"It's just that…in a few hours, there won't be a fighter problem anymore. Why does the infantry need them? They've been doing fine on their own so far." Marissa said.

"Well, no war has ever been won by air power alone." Peter said.

"Ahh, but whoever controls the air, _controls_ the war." Marissa replied.

"Just because we control the outcome of the battle, does not mean we can win it on our own." Peter said.

"I suppose you're right." Marissa said stubbornly.

"It's like you always say, 'Never underestimate the unknown. It will always surprise you." Peter said.

"I hate it when you're right." Marissa said.

The last of the P-47s lifted onto the air some minutes later, and Marissa's B-26 Marauder "Heart Breaker" taxied onto the primary runway.

"You know you use to call this thing the widow maker back in the day right?" The newest member of the crew said in a panicked Irish accent. His name was Tanner, and he was a transfer from the Ireland.

"Don't worry, the most dangerous part is the landing. Otherwise this baby flies great. Mostly." Peter said.

"Mostly?!" Tanner panicked.

"Don't worry British, I was only kidding." Peter replied.

"I'm from Dublin." Tanner replied. Despite being worried about flying a plane that had a long crash record, most of his disadvantages were not "below the neck" so to speak.

"Sorry, my bad. I got a C minus in geography." Peter replied as he increased the throttle.

The big plane picked up speed and began rolling down the runway.

"Passing five-thousand meter marker." Peter said.

"Copy." Marissa said keeping her eye on the speed indicator.

"Just passed the forty-five hundred meter marker." Peter said.

"Not helping." Marissa said, struggling to lift the plane into the air.

"Four thousand meters." Peter said.

The plane began to shake.

"Three thousand meters, coming up." Peter said.

The plane began to lift into the air as it reached its take off speed.

"Gear up. Maintain a holding pattern until we get the rest of our people up here. Marissa said as the plane climbed into the air."

"Copy that." Peter replied. The plane began to orbit the airbase as the rest of the planes began to take off.

In a few minutes, all the bombers were up, and a group of Sturmoviks began taxing to the runway. After half an hour, most of the fighters, and all the ground attack aircraft were in the air.

The group consisted of four P-47s, eight P-40s, eight Sturmoviks, the four heavy bombers, two P-38s, eight Dauntless dive-bombers, Two Nakajima Ki-43s, and two F8F Bearcats.

"Alright, group one, proceed to the enemy airbase, group two wait for remaining aircraft and assault the town." Marissa said into the radio.

"Copy." Came the response from the flight leaders.

* * *

_Alright, fairly long. Sorry again if it's a bit scattershot, but I tried to get the view of the whole battle, since this is a fairly large area we're talking about. Anyway, this ended fairly abruptly, and I apologize for that, and I should continue the battle in the next chapter. Unfortunately, I will be posting rather slowly until spring and summer breaks come around. Fields of Glory has been put on temporary hiatus for now. I might go back and do a re-write. Also, for those who have not noticed, in the wake of the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, I have posted a new story on the Kingsman forum, and so far it's been getting great results. Please check it out. __Anyway, that's all I have to say for now, please R&amp;R and feel free to F&amp;F. Only constructive comments, no put downs. And as always, Semper Fi carry on._


	11. The Battle Of Devil's Blunder

**Battle of Devil's Blunder**

The low drone of engines filled the air as the flight of bombers and their escort fighters sailed through the air towards their target.

"How much longer?" A voice complained over the radio. It was Sandra, the pilot of the B-17 _Angel Fire_.

"We've only been airborne for half an hour." Marissa said.

"Only half an hour? It feels so much longer." Sandra replied.

"It's probably because we're flying towards a near certain doom." Katashi, pilot of the B-25 _Rolling Thunder_ said in his usual deadpan voice.

"Seriously? You pick now, of all times, to be pessimistic?" Marissa said.

"I'm always pessimistic. We're flying towards the enemy airbase which probably has some form of early warning system, and is crawling with fighters and triple A." Katashi said.

"You let us worry about the fighters." Daichi Fujimoto said, giving the wings of his P-47D a waggle in salute.

"Right." Katashi said.

"Aren't we supposed to maintain radio silence?" Asked Takeshi, Sandra's radio operator and top turret gunner.

"I don't think it matters that much." Daichi said.

"You do realize that they can listen in on our radio conversations, right?" Takeshi said.

"Indeed I do, but seeing as nothing's happened thus far, I think we're-" Daichi paused as he looked up and saw a flight of P-38s high above them.

"P-38s, twelve o'clock high!" Daichi shouted.

"Copy, I see them." Takeshi said as the fighters began to dive down on the prey. A black falcon painted on the nose of each aircraft.

"That's not good!" Sandra said.

The four fighters the team happened to run into just happened to be the Australian team's top pilots. The Black Falcons.

Each of the four had at least ten aerial victories painted on the side of their aircraft.

"Well. That's problematic." Marissa said.

"Define problematic!" Sandra said.

The P-38s opened up with their four .50 cal machine guns and 20 mm cannon. The tracers shot past the bombers. Some of the fighters broke off to engage as the bombers' top turret gunners began laying into the enemy aircraft.

The P-38s flew past the bombers and began weaving their way threw the formation.

"This is not going well!" Marissa's tail gunner panicked as he unloaded his gun into the passing fighter.

"Targets. Six o'clock low." Takeshi's ball turret gunner said as he opened fire.

Below them a squadron of Brewster Buffalos climbed up to meat them. As they climbed towards the bombers, they were greeted by a hail of bullets from eight browning M2 .50 cal machine guns from the bombers' ball turret gunners.

"WAHOOO!" Marissa heard her tail gunner, Takeo, yelling into his radio.

"Jesus, Takeo-san, can you keep it down back there." Marissa scolded.

"Sorry boss. No can do. I'm the one covering your ass. The least you can do is let me relax while doing it." Takeo said.

"You tail gunners have balls of your own, I'll give you that much." Marissa joked.

"Indeed ma'am, big brass ones. Thank you for noticing." Takeo quipped back.

Marissa turned her headset down a few notches to avoid going deaf the next time Takeo decided to scream into the radio.

"You walked into that." Peter said, seeing Marissa's face turn red.

Soon, the sky around the bombers was a massive fur ball as the escort fighters jockeyed with the enemy to keep them off the bombers as best they could. The rest of the ground attack aircraft either dove to the deck as quickly as possible, or were already there.

"This is getting thick!" Takeo said, shooting down a second fighter.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, was words of wisdom from our very own Takeo, master of the obvious." Marissa quipped as she struggled to keep the bomber steady through the turbulence.

"This is going to be a long flight."

* * *

**Devil's Blunder.**

"Kenji-san, what's the status of the bombers?" Miho asked as Kenji walked into the commander's tent.

"They've run into enemy air units, but are continuing onto target." Kenji replied.

"Is this going to interfere with the time table?" Miho asked.

"It shouldn't. But it's hard to say."

"Copy. Are the vehicles ready?" Miho asked.

"Hai. We are all set up over here." Kenji replied.

"Hai. Once the bombs drop, we'll begin the operation."

* * *

**Bomber Group.**

"It's getting pretty thick up here." Daichi said.

"How's your ammo?" Rei Takahashi asked.

"Not good. I'm starting to run low. You?" Daichi asked.

"Same here. Hiro-san. How are things on your end?" Rei asked.

"Ammo's low, but…" there was a brief burst of gunfire, "I just took out one of their Aces." Hiro said.

"Top turret ring is jammed!" Arisu said.

"Left waist gun is out. Right turret is green." Tanner replied.

"Tail gun is about half empty." Takeo said.

"Shit! All bombers, check in!"

"This is _Angel Fire_, we lost our ball turret gunner, our right waist gunner and our nose gunner."

"This is _Rolling Thunder_, our tail gunner is dead, but other wise we're good."

"This is _War Hammer_, our guns are either out of ammo, or knocked out. We're sitting ducks up here."

"Copy. Can you make it to target?" Marissa asked.

"Affirmative. We got a few miles left on us. Keep us covered and we can make it."

"Copy. All bombers, form a defensive formation around _War Hammer_. Fighters, focus your efforts on the B-29. All right everyone, get you balls screwed on. It's only going to get worse from here." Marissa said as Buffalo dove past the B-26 with guns blazing. The rounds shot through the open hatch of the right waist gun and struck Tanner in the back causing him to cry in agony as he fell to the ground. The bullets rounds knocked the wind out of him and left a nasty bruise, but had been stopped by the modernized flack jacket. A series of ceramic plates absorbed most of the impact from the .50 cal rounds.

"Shit! Are you okay!?" Marissa shouted.

Unable to answer, the large Irish man simply raised his hand in an "OK" sign as he crawled back to the radio console.

"Peter, call Akio and tell her we're closing in on the target, but we're loosing gunners."

"Copy."

* * *

**Over the Town.**

"_Group two. This is group one. What's your status?"_ Peter said.

"Group one, this is group two, we have completed our attack run and took out one of the Churchills." Akio said.

"_Copy. ETA ten minutes, but we're loosing our gunners, and our fighters are running low on ammo, we may be hitting them with just our bombs."_

"That should be enough, right?"

"_Yeah, but we need to hit several targets in order to render the airbase out of action. Otherwise they're aloud to repair it, right?_"

"True, but how fast can the repair an airbase?"

"_I'd rather not find out. Back in the day, there were units that could build an airfield from scratch in less than a day_."

"Alright. I'll send our P-47s to help out." Akio said.

"_Thanks_" Peter said and the line went dead.

"Eagle one through four. Head over to Group ones position and back them up. Watch yourselves out there." Akio said to her fighter escort. A moment later four of the P-47s broke off and headed towards the bomber group.

"Do you think they'll be able to complete their mission?" Haru asked.

"They'll have to. Otherwise, our girls on the ground won't stand a chance with enemy air power still up." Akio responded glumly.

* * *

**Australian Fighter Group.**

"All fighters, this is Falcon One I want an ammo check right now!" Dingo said as he shot down another P-47.

"This is Falcon Two, I got one good burst left." His wingman said.

"This Falcon Four. I'm still green." Said his section leader's wingman said.

"What happened to Falcon Three?" Dingo asked.

"The SOB in the Bearcat got him." His wingman said.

"Shit." Dingo said, seeing Hiro's plane dive after another Buffalo.

"Alright. He's mine." Dingo said flying after him.

* * *

**Japanese Fighter Group.**

"Hiro you got a P-38 diving on you." Hiro's wingman said.

"Copy. Damn I'm almost out of ammo." Hiro said.

"You want me to take him?" His wingman asked.

"Negative, stay on the bombers. I'll handle this guy." Hiro said. He jerked his plane left and leveled it out. He knew better than to try and beat a P-38 in a dive.

"Alright. Let's see what you got." He said to himself.

Dingo leveled out right behind him and began to line up a shot, but Hiro banked hard right as Dingo let off a stream of tracers. Dingo immediately let off the throttle and did an aileron roll to end up right back on Hiro's six o'clock.

Hiro banked the plane hard right, not giving his opponent another chance to shoot at him. He kept letting Dingo get close, then pulling sharply in either direction just as Dingo fired a burst. Dingo broke off and sped away, gaining altitude.

He dove back down on Hiro high on his three o'clock and attempted a deflection shot, pulling the nose of his plane to the right and giving him just enough of a lead to ensure a hit. He pressed the firing button on his yoke, unleashing a deadly torrent of tracers.

Hiro slammed the air breaks just in time to slow down enough, allowing the tracers to streak past nose of his own aircraft. He immediately gunned the throttle and sped off.

"Damn. This guy's better than I thought." Dingo said.

The two fighters continued their deadly dance for several minutes, slowly loosing altitude with each pass. Eventually Dingo was on Hiro's tail once again. He was perfectly lined up to take down his prey.

"Good game, old boy. But now it must end." Dingo said to himself. He aligned his crosshairs on Hiro's cockpit and pressed the trigger ounce more, only to hear a metallic _click!_

"Damn. Not now." Dingo said realizing he was out of ammo.

Sensing this, Hiro pitched his nose up and rolled inverted, then hit his air breaks, decreasing his air speed drastically, allowing Dingo to fly under him. The maneuver was executed with such speed and precision, Dingo was stunned and didn't have time to react. Hiro's plane passed within feet of Dingo's and was behind him before he could blink. Hiro rolled back over and leveled his plane out before aligning a firing solution.

Still stunned, Dingo just sat back with his eyes closed and waited for the final blow to be delivered. Second after second ticked by with agonizing patience, before Dingo heard the sound of bullets wising past his cockpit.

Dingo opened his eyes to see Hiro pull his plane up next to him. The two pilots just stared at each other for a brief moment, their wing tips nearly touching.

Both pilots were close enough to see every detail of the other's uniform. They continued to fly strait until Hiro raised his hand to his head in a salute. A moment later, he saw Dingo raise his hand in a similar gesture. Both pilots smiled under their masks as they brought their hands back to the controls. Hiro pulled his fighter up and off to the east heading towards his own base, leaving Dingo to continue his flight home alone.

"I'm out of ammo, and I'm heading home." Hiro said into his radio.

"Did you get him?" His wingman asked.

"No. But I don't think he'll be much trouble anymore." Hiro said. Continuing his long flight home.

* * *

**Bomber Group. 1 P.M.**

"Approaching target." Amaya said.

"Copy. All bombers commence attack formations." Marissa said.

"Roger." The other bombers responded. The bombers formed themselves into a crude square as they approached the airfield.

"Alright, three minutes till bomb drop. Amaya-san, you have control of the plane." Marissa said.

"Roger." Amaya said, taking control of the plane from her station behind the bombsight.

As they flew over the airfield at twenty five thousand feet, the fighters began to increase the intensity of their attacks. One of the fighters flew right past Marissa's cockpit, making the aircraft shake violently with the turbulence.

"Damn!" Marissa cursed as they continued their assault, "Any minute would be nice Amaya-san."

"Almost their. I'm lining up the runway and I'll drop just short of the ATC. _War Hammer_ take _Rolling Thunder_ and target the hangars." Amaya said, adjusting the bombsight.

"Copy!" Hikaru responded. The B-25 and the B-29 both pulled slightly to the left, and the formation now resembled more of a flying _V_ formation.

"Target coming u, bombs way in…3…2…1. Bombs away!" Amaya said, hitting the bomb release. The other three bombers simultaneously dropped their bombs as well, blanketing the entire airfield in large explosions.

"Status of target?" Asked Marissa.

"Hang on." Amaya said waiting for the dust and smoke to settle.

"God damn! We missed one. I say again, ATC is still active." Amaya said angrily.

"Copy. All fighters. What's your ammo Status?" Marissa asked.

"I'm out of ammo." Daichi said.

"Same here." Rei responded.

"Good god, are you guys just shitty marksman, or did you run with a half ammo load?" Marissa said in her pissed off tone.

"Your one to talk, your gunners are in the same boat as we are. We can't help that there were almost a hundred enemy fighters crawling up your ass, but thanks to us, you don't have that problem right now." Rei tore into Marissa with more verbal insults.

"Both of you shut it. We're not getting anywhere with this. What's important is we take out the ATC. Where are our P-40s and P-51s?" Daichi interrupted the shouting match.

"We're here." The P-51 pilot spoke up.

"Alright. How do you feel about strafing the airfield?" Daichi asked.

"Ammo's at half capacity. You sure you'll manage without us?" The pilot asked.

"Yes. We should get along just fine. Once that ATC is dead they won't have any more air cover." Daichi said.

"Copy." The pilot said as two NA-91s and four P-40 Tomahawks dove out of formation and circled around for a strafing run.

The fighters circled around and took aim at the tower, and opened fire. The .50 cal machine guns on the P-40s spat fire and bullets, riddling the tower with bright splotches of paint. The procession of four Tomahawks passed quickly, dealing heavy damage to the tower. However it was the prototype P-51s that did the most damage with their 20 mm Hispano cannons. The 20 mm slugs slammed into the side of the building and after the second fighter finished it's brutal run, the tower's red knockout flare shot into the sky like a rocket, as it's own white flag rolled up the flag pole.

As the tower went down, the fighters harassing the remaining planes ceased their attacks and wagged their wings in salute as they proceeded to land.

"Group two, this is group one, mission accomplished. Target destroyed." Marissa said with pride as she saw the red flare shoot up into the sky.

"Roger. I'll deliver the good news. Out." Akio responded.

"Alright guys. Let's head home." Marissa said as the flight of planes began an agonizingly slow turn towards their base.

* * *

**The Town. Day 3. 1 P.M.**

"What?" Trace almost yelled in disbelief.

"They took out the airfield." The cadet in front of her said nervously.

"How?" Trace asked.

"Apparently the took a force of heavy bombers and carpet bombed the airfield." Bruce said.

"And eighty-three aircraft couldn't stop them!?" Trace asked.

"Not eighty-three. Only Seventy of our aircraft are fighters." Bruce said.

"And that makes a difference how?" Trace said.

"We had every one of our fighters hit them relentlessly. They pushed through." Bruce said.

"Persistent, aren't they?" Trace said.

"I want everyone on elevated alert and the tanks ready to roll out." Trace told the cadet.

"Yes Ma'am." The cadet responded and walked out.

"What's the game plan?" Bruce asked.

"If they took out our air base, then they're planning something. I want to be ready when the axe comes down." Trace said.

"Right. So we'll beat them on the defense, shall we?" Bruce said.

"It's worked before. We have a pretty strong defense." Trace said.

"Yeah. But now they have air superiority."

* * *

**Somewhere in the Desert. Day 3. 1:50 P.M.**

"Do you know where we are?" Ryota asked the driver as the heavily armored Deuce and a half rolled down the road. Two high dunes flanked them on either side.

"It would be a lot easier to navigate if somebody didn't lose our only compass, and map!" The driver quipped back. It was Midday as the small patrol rounded another corner.

They didn't have enough experience with the lay of the land to navigate without proper tools.

"Don't blame me. You're the one who wanted to come out this far in the first place!" Ryota shouted back.

The truck the group was riding in had extra steel plates welded to the side, and had two Browning M1919A4 Machine guns sticking over the sides, and an M2 .50 cal machine gun facing the rear. The Japanese team had quickly taken to calling this truck, and the other just like it, the 'Gun Trucks.'

Currently, the two gun trucks rolled down the barren stretch of land after a lengthy patrol while the bombers hit their target. Along the way Ryota, the gunner of the Stinger LMG the team had resting on the cab, had somehow dropped the compass while they were driving. They weren't aware of the fact until long after it had happened. As they searched, a breeze carried the map off into the wild blue yonder. This may not have been Ryota's fault directly, but they gave him shit for it anyway.

"Yeah, what ever. You want to try the radio again?" The driver asked his shot gunner.

"Any station, any station, this is Gunslinger Actual, come in over?" The boy tried only to hear static.

"Any station, any station, this is Gunslinger Actual, come in over?"

Nothing.

"Dammit. We'll keep driving."

The constant dips into sand dunes and featureless terrain prevented the group from navigating properly. That, and the fact their command post relocated twice a day made it even harder. However, there was an FOB near _Devil's Blunder_ that Kenji and his unit would be. They would have a better radio they could contact Miho with.

The sun began to dip west, giving the boys a solid sense of direction. With no clear indication of where they were, the decided to head east.

They rolled on for about two hours until they ran into their biggest problem. As they crested a hill, they found themselves facing the town. It took a minute for both sides to register what had just happened but it didn't take long for Ryota to open fire on the bell tower, gunning down the sniper that was lining up their driver.

The boys gunned it down the hill, and made a beeline for the north road. The enemy QRF quickly jumped into their six jeeps loaded with a .30 cal machine gun on the back and a Lewis gun on the front. The Enemy Cromwells in hot pursuit as well. The other gunners opened fire at the attacking jeeps, disabling one as they rounded the corner.

The Cromwell's guns fired furiously, barely missing their target as their machine guns hammered away. Several of the jeeps had found a way on to the dunes flanking the road and sprayed the trucks mercilessly. The lead truck's fifty bellowed as it's large rounds slammed into the perusing jeep, causing it to disappear behind the cusp of the hill.

The gun trucks hauled ass back to friendly lines as enemy fire hammered at them the entire way. The rear truck bore the brunt of the Australian's fury. They were not happy about losing their air power. Not happy at all.

For what it was worth, Ryota's poor organizational skills were more than made up for by his skill with the Stinger. That weapon was like a part of him, and he used it with great skill.

The two .30 cal gunners in the rear truck had fallen to the sheer volume of enemy fire, but the trucks pressed on.

Within five minutes, the small valley gave way to flat open ground. A 500-meter stretch of open ground leading up to _Devil's Blunder_. As the trucks broke through to open country they spread out, forcing the enemy to choose a target. A moment later, the hill erupted with gunfire as a hundred rifles and two heavy machine guns unleashed a torrent of bullets at the attacking enemy.

Two belches of flame from a Chaffee and the Tiger P joined the fusillade. The shots exploded over two jeeps, rendering the crew out of action. Rabbit team and Mallard team soon added their guns to the hail of bullets, taking out the remaining Cromwells. Several light machine guns pounded the enemy as more jeeps fell victim to the storm.

Soon the remaining jeeps broke contact and retreated behind the safety of the sand dunes. The gun trucks limped behind the cover of the hill where a small dirt road leads up to the top of the hill. Most of the crew of the second gun truck had been taken out and they slowly walked to the casualty collection point, numb from the electric shocks their "Kill" detectors gave them.

"Are your men okay?" Kenji said, walking up to the driver of the first truck.

"Yeah. A little shot up, but otherwise fine."

"Then you want to explain what the hell just happened. You blew our cover to soon." Kenji beckoned.

"Sorry sir. We got lost this and spent the entire day wandering around the dessert. We ran into the town on our way back to our rally point, and made a beeline this way. There wasn't much else we could do." The boy replied.

"It's my fault sir," Ryota called down from atop the truck, "I lost our map and our compass."

"Well as long as you boys are okay." Kenji replied in a softer tone. He walked off down the hill where a small group of tents lay. He had to report this to Miho. The Timetable just changed.

* * *

**The Town. Day 3. 2 P.M.**

The entire Australian team watched in awe as their battered special forces team limped into camp. After quickly getting cleaned off, and a quick bite to eat, the commander went into the commander's hooch to get debriefed.

After a quick recollection of the events, Trace simply asked "How many?"

"There were a lot of them. I can't tell how many infantry, but I'm certain I saw their entire armored force on that ridge. They have a good defensive position as well." The commander said.

The group spent a half hour mapping the fortifications by memory.

"Okay. Attacking head on would be practical suicide. While we do have numbers, they have a technology advantage. The tank destroyers, the Panzer IV, and the Tiger all have better weapons than us, and can outrange us." Trace concluded.

"Yeah, but the dunes give us cover till we get within 500 meters of their position." Bruce said.

"If this Nishizumi is smart, they'll have that gap pre aimed with every gun they have. It's a fatal funnel. The rats proved that." Trace said. The SF team had been dubbed the Rats after the British 7th armored division that they took their tactics from.

"Alright. What f we use our Churchills as a shield? They have the thickest armor, they'd be perfect." Bruce asked.

"Still. From that range, their gunners won't miss. The Churchills are to slow. All of our big guns and heavy armor are to slow to make it through." Trace said.

"Okay. What if we try to flank them? We could lay a smoke screen down at the mouth of the dunes and charge them with our light, and scout tanks as a diversion. If we send some infantry with them as back up."

"One problem. Our M3s can't hack the slopes." Trace said.

"They won't have to. On one of our patrols, we found an old trail that leads north. It dips into a dried up riverbed. There's a ridge flanking it that will give us cover till we're within 200 meters from their left flank." The commander of the Rats added as he drew the trail out on the map.

"Will it be big enough to take all our tanks?" Trace asked.

"Yeah. Only problem is, the riverbed's only wide enough for two tanks to travel down it at a time. So we'd have to go down it double file. If they know we're coming, we'd be sitting ducks." The SF commander said.

"What are the chances they know about this?"

"Unlikely. We only found out about it recently ourselves. The trail isn't marked on any maps we were provided, and the riverbed stretches on for miles. Of course, I have no way of knowing for sure."

"I think it's worth the risk." Bruce said.

"I agree. Brief the commanders. Let them know what we're planning. I want a full missions brief in an hour."

* * *

**Devil's Blunder. Day 3. 4 P.M.**

"Something's up." Kenji said as he and Kouri trooped the line. Two hours had passed since the skirmish with the Rat platoon.

In that time they deepened and expanded their trenches and machine gun pits. Four 57mm M18 recoilless rifles had been added to the team's firepower, as well as two 37mm anti tank guns. They wouldn't do much against the heavier Australian tanks, but they were all Oorai could afford to field in the time that was available. Plus they would be enough to take out any of the crusaders or any lighter tanks that would be fielded by the enemy.

The trenches were now around waist deep, and were lined with sand bags. Several Bren guns and MG42s had also been set up, as well as two M2 .50 caliber machine guns that had been taken off the tanks.

"What makes you say that." Kouri said, as the two passed a Vickers machine gun.

"To much time has passed. I don't think we got their attention as much as we needed to." Kenji said.

"They saw our entire force. There's no way that they aren't going to react." Kouri replied.

"True. But I don't think we pissed them off as much as we wanted. They're planning something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But when things kick off, we have to be ready."

"How?"

"That's a good question. My bet is they're going to try and flank us. They'll get in close and overwhelm us."

"Okay. But how would they get that close? Their big guns can't get over the dunes. And at range, we have them beat."

"Unless they find a way to sneak within effective firing range of their guns."

"Where could they do that?" Kouri asked, turning to his friend.

"Do we have any accurate information on the lay of the land to our flanks?" Kouri asked in a puzzled manner.

"Only the right flank. That's the direction everybody came from." Kouri replied.

"I think there's a riverbed wide enough for a tank to travel along it. I want the mouth of that bed mined. I also want some of our weapons shifted so they can easily be moved to cover an attack from the flank."

"I'll see what we can do. Most of our tank mines or out in the kill box." Kouri said pointing his thumb at the open field in front of them.

"Alright."

"Although, don't you find it odd that they would attack from the flank. They're known for hard hitting attacks." Kouri asked.

"No. They're known for hitting hard. Doesn't mean they always hit from the front." Kenji said as he stared into the setting sun that just hovered on the horizon.

* * *

**Devil's Blunder. Day 3. 8 P.M.**

Night had fallen soon. The plan to attack the enemy at night had disappeared with the last ounce of sunlight. The Australians proved tougher, and more patient than first believed. There was no way the assault team would be venturing out with the entire Australian team guarding the town.

"Six hours since bomb drop." One of the soldiers whispered to Kenji as he rolled over to take a sip from his canteen.

"They'll be here." Kenji said in a less than reassuring tone.

"Yeah, but now we have to compete with limited sight. And we have no airpower."

"They have the same problems." Kenji replied. He slowly retreated from the berm of the precipice of his foxhole and began to troop the line.

All the men were ready, and prepared for the fight. But the anticipation and sheer boredom made the sloppy as several of the men began to dose off in their trenches.

Kenji finished his rounds and returned to the foxhole.

"Where the hell are they?" He asked, more to himself than to anyone else.

"What was that?" the boy asked.

"What was what?"

"I thought I heard something."

Kouri contemplated this for a moment while staring at the battleground. Then he saw something moving on the hill.

He grabbed up his radio to order an illumination round. Before he could make the call, the muzzle flash of a low velocity tank gun chased the darkness away for a brief moment before the round slammed into the hillside.

"Lightning 1-0, this is Ronin 0-1, I want an illumination on fire position Charlie, over!" Kenji said into the radio as more tank guns belched fire. The night reeled stricken, taken aback as the machine guns from both sides erupted in a spectacular display of fire and tracers.

The tank destroyers rolled out of their hiding places on the flat plateau off the hilltop and began to return fire, blindly. The 105mm gun from Rhino team's tank destroyer erupted in a mighty roar and a flash that dwarfed the others. The HEAT round slammed harmlessly into the ground, illuminating the sides of three crusader light tanks.

A moment after the gunfight began, an illumination flare from the mortars shot into the sky, turning night into day as if it were their very own sun.

The fifties beckoned as they chewed through their ammo. The two 37mm AT spat small belches of flame as the gunners quickly returned fire.

The flare revealed at least four hundred infantry either riding on trucks or jeeps running towards the hill. They were following what must have been twenty crusaders as they continued their charge. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the big guns began to find their mark. Soon Leopon team, Mallard team, and Rabbit team had joined the fusillade, and took out several of the crusaders as they crossed the three hundred meter line.

One of the recoilless rifles spat it's own flame as the rocket sizzled across the battlefield and fell harmlessly short. The enemy gained another hundred meters, machine guns blazing. The troops on the hill began to poor lead into the attacking enemy with machine guns and rifles.

The tanks fired another volley that bounced harmlessly off the thick armored hide of the Japanese tanks. It wasn't much longer until the attackers ran into the Japanese mines. Slowly, one after another, the charging crusaders had their tracks blown off until the attack had lost its momentum. The infantry dismounted the trucks and began to wildly return fire.

The tempo of the battle quickened as more bullets slammed into the Japanese line taking out dozens of men and one of the gunners of the Vickers.

Reiki scrambled through the trench as he attempted to carry the 'dead' and 'wounded' to the casualty collection point behind the hill. The mortar team sat at the center of the plateau and began to mercilessly pour round after round of high explosives into the stalled assault force. He witnessed the gunner go down as a round slammed into his facemask. He was quickly dragged away by the medics.

"Get on that gun!" One of the squad leaders bellowed at Reiki. The boy must have not seen his rank, but he was right. Everybody else was far too busy to take up a position on the Vickers, which sat silently on the hilltop. Reiki made his way over to the weapon and racked the charging handle.

He pressed on the trigger only to have nothing happen. He racked the handle again and fired a long burst into the enemy position. The amount of fire became murderous as the two sides stood there hammering it out.

"_Why are they just sitting there? They're completely exposed. And where are their M3s?"_ Kenji thought to himself.

"Commander! One of our mines on our left flank just went off. I'm seeing M3s and Matilda's approaching. They're 100 meters from our position!" A voice called over the radio.

"Leopon team, Mallard team, Get over there and secure that bottle neck!" Kouri shouted over the deafening volume of fire.

"Roger." Nakajima replied. The Tiger and the Char B1 lurched backward and turned towards the oncoming assault.

Once they had a visual on the enemy, they unleashed a volley from their cannons that slammed into the oncoming enemy. But several M3s and Matildas had already pored out of the mouth of the riverbed and had pushed frighteningly close to their position.

Just as the illumination flare died out, five of the M3s unleashed a volley from their 75mm cannons that pierced the coming darkness. The rounds slammed into the front of the two tanks, harmlessly glancing off the front of the tiger, but absolutely annihilating the Char B1. The heavy tank burst into flames, and its white flag waved gently in the breeze, illuminated by the fire's light.

"This is Leopon team, Mallard's down! We're about to be overrun! I need Mortar fire on coordinates Delta!" Nakajima ordered just as another volley of fire took out the Tiger's tracks.

* * *

**Australian Flank Assault.**

"Careful! That Tiger's still got some claws!" Trace said. Her engineers had successfully disarmed most of the mines, but had missed one that took out one of the M3s. No matter. They had the element of surprise.

"Churchills, attack up the hill. Everybody else. Swing right. We'll come up from behind them." Trace ordered. The formation immediately broke right to circle the hill and attack up the gentler rear slope as the five Churchills assaulted strait up the side of the hill.

* * *

**Japanese Positions.**

"Prepare for close quarters combat!" Kenji shouted. The men in the lower trenches quickly retreated up the hills as mortars pounded the crusaders.

The enemy assault force began to move once again, undaunted by mortar fire and land mines.

Rhino team, Rabbit, and Hedgehog team in the remaining Chaffee and the supporting infantry stood alone against the enemy attacking up the slope. Twenty tanks coming up from the north backed by nearly three hundred infantry. Ten tanks left to the south supported by the remaining two hundred from their initial charge, while five Churchills climbed the slope to the west, the Japanese teams circled the vehicles in a defensive formation, with the front of the tanks facing the enemy while the gun trucks fired on them, side on.

"Angler fish, this is Ronin 0-1! We are being flanked by a substantial number of enemy troops and tanks. We need immediate QRF, ASAP." Kenji had to shout over the sounds of battle.

"Roger, Ronin 0-1. Dragon team, Hippo team, and Turtle team enroute." Saori's voice crackled through the radio.

As the Enemy reached the base of the hill, the boys in the trenches retreated over the berm. Their gauntlet of fire at the beginning of the fight left them drained of ammo.

Reiki heaved the weapon onto his shoulder and hurried back over the berm as enemy infantry began to charge up the hill. Rubber bayonets fixed.

Kouri rallied his squad to face the brunt of the assault on the rear of the hill. He loaded another clip into his Springfield and readied his men for the coming assault. The sound of tank treads growing ever closer.

"Company! prepare to defend yourselves!" Kenji bellowed over the sounds of combat.

"Seriously?" Kouri asked.

"What? I love that movie." Kenji replied, smiling under his mask.

"OORAH!" The enemy's battle cry rose over the crest of the hill like a tidal wave.

Down the left flank, Leopon team put up a valiant effort as the Tiger P crew fired every last shell they could in an attempt to stop, or at least slow, the attacking Churchills. The British tanks were too heavily armored for consistent kills, but they were able to take out one Churchill, and disable another. Finally, the big cat was put down when the Churchills eventually got around her and blasted the tank in the side. Their white flag billowed on the flames as the tanks rolled past them.

The first Churchill to crest the hill was swiftly met by a powerful 105mm to the face from Rhino team's big gun. Their commander, Eiko Ikeuchi, sat defiantly behind the tank destroyer's .50 cal machine gun.

The point blank shot managed to knock the big tank down the hill ever so slightly. The second Churchill, stunned from the eruption of flame that had befallen its comrade, stalled for a moment allowing Rhino team's loader, Tadashi Kaneshiro, to reload. The ex-rugby forward heaved the heavy shell from the rack and slammed it home into the breech.

The second Churchill finally crested the hill, and met the same, fiery fate as the first. The empty shell casing clattered to the floor as Akecheta whispered to himself, _"bull's-eye."_

To the front of the hill, the crusaders were all but wiped out as the 200 remaining infantry charged over the top. Unable to set up the gun's tripod, Reiki cradled the Vickers in his arms and pressed the trigger, mowing down several charging soldiers. Standing defiant in the torrent of return fire, he unleashed a hail of bullets into the enemy.

The rest of the men facing the south of the hill followed suit with their rifles and SMGs. A BAR barked at a charging officer as it stitched him up center mass. One of the Australians tossed a grenade that exploded in a large mass of troops, showering the with rubber shrapnel. Hedgehog team's two coaxial machine guns and turret mounted .50 cal joined the torrent, and soon, the enemy attack had bee repelled. For now.

Kenji unloaded another spray of fire from his m/45 SMG into the charging enemy. Another soldier began to close distance with him as he fired wildly with a Thompson. Kenji quickly stitched him up with a quick burst from his weapon before reloading.

Kouri Sat next to him and had removed the scope from his weapon. He sighted an enemy officer and squeezed the trigger. The officer's head jerked back, and he fell to the floor. He cycled the bolt and delivered another shot, center mass, of another charging soldier. Two more soldiers went down after two more cracks of his rifle. He cycled the bolt once more and dropped an enemy machine gunner. The Australian troops withdrew from the fight and regrouped behind their tanks.

The M3s struggled up the hill and were met by a volley from Rabbit's twin turrets. The teams were separated by almost fifty meters of open hill slope. The shells found their marks and tore into the M3s.

The enemy tanks returned fire with their 37mms, still unable to bring 75s to bear yet. Rabbit quickly reloaded and fired again, taking out two more tanks, this time they were Matildas.

"Focus fire on the M3s, they're the biggest threat right now!" Their commander yelled.

A recoilless rifle took out another M3, as Kenji picked up a Panzerfaust and took out a Matilda. Finally, the enemy landed a solid hit on Rabbit, silencing her guns.

"I'm low on ammo!" Kenji yelled as the M3s racked their lines with Machine gun fire.

"Ammo check!" Kouri yelled.

"We're running low!" Was the overall response.

Kenji swore to himself. The enemy began to close ranks with them. He drew his pistol and quickly dropped a charging infantryman. His men were running out of ammo, a bayonet charge was soon becoming their only option.

"Commander! We can retreat off the east side of the hill!"

"No! Rhino team will never make it fast enough. No body gets left behind!" Kenji ordered.

"Then what do we do?"

Kenji hesitated for a moment.

"Pop smoke!" Kenji yelled with a slight crack in his voice. Soon, a thick white screen of smoke blanketed the battlefield.

"Save ammo! Only shoot at what you can hit!"

Another shot from the recoilless rifle took out another M3 as it emerged from the fog. The T95's gun roared again, silencing the last of the Churchills. Several 75mm shells glanced harmlessly off the thick side armor of the tank as it slowly traversed left.

"_Finally,"_ Kenji thought to himself, _"We have our biggest gun coming at you."_

The moment was short lived as an enemy mortar round landed on the back of the heavy tank. The top of the tank erupted in flames as Eiko ducked into the tank. The massive tank's white flank shot up over the flames of battle.

"Hammer One, this is Ronin 0-1, what's your status?" Kenji shouted into the radio.

"Ronin 0-1, this is Hammer one, coming at you now. Sorry for the hold up." Luna Cole's voice echoed through the radio.

"No problem, just get up here fast! Can you focus your forces on the northern end of the hill, where the smoke is!?" Kenji yelled over the cannon fire.

"Sure thing."

The tempo of the battle spiked as the enemy tankers saw the QRF quickly approaching.

"Get up the hill, now!" Trace shouted at her troops. The Australians pressed harder charged up the hill. The infantry rushed ahead, but without the cover of the tanks, they were mowed down by machine gun fire. The cannons voiced their intent as shell after shell hammered away at the remaining Japanese positions.

Dragon team's main gun roared as a breath of flames shot towards the rear of the Australian forces, slamming into the rear of one of the M3s. Pulling along side Dragon team were Hippo team, and Turtle team. The two tank destroyers fired simultaneously and obliterated another two tanks. The two tank destroyers reloaded with well-rehearsed speed, with Dragon team not far behind. The three tanks continued their onslaught as they charged up the hill.

Two trucks unloaded their infantry who began to follow the armor up the hill like little angry ducklings following their mother. The M3s were forced to turn around to bring their big guns to bear.

Running low on ammo, Kenji decided to take advantage of the confusion occurring below.

"Fix bayonets!" He ordered. Any of his men with a rifle quickly fixed a rubber bayonet to the front of their weapon, while those without distributed ammo to those they could help.

Kenji dropped his m/45. Out of ammo. He picked up a Russian PPSh-41 submachine gun, outfitted with a fresh drum magazine.

"This is the last Panzerfaust!" Kouri yelled. The rocket sizzled through the air and slammed into the front of an M3. Another smoke screen was quickly deployed further down the hill to further mask their movements.

The Australian lines began to crumble as they were trapped on both sides. Panic began to set in as the Japanese battle cry rose through the smoke and sounds of battle like a tsunami of voices.

"_BANZAI!"_

The Japanese troops left on the hill charged down the slope, machine guns and rifles blazing as they burst through the smoke. The Australians were gunned down as the two forces clashed in a flurry rubber blades and rifle stocks.

Kenji's SMG racked the lines as he emptied the magazine. When it was empty another Australian soldier rushed him from behind a tank. Kenji met him with a stiff swing of the weapon's stock, catching him in the side of the facemask. The weapon's stock was padded just in case, but the force was enough to lift him off the ground.

Kenji tossed the useless weapon to the side and drew his pistol and planted two more rounds into the boy's chest. He continued to advance with pistol drawn, carefully picking his targets.

Several boys began to climb onto the tops of the tanks, forcing the hatches open and tossing grenades into the crew compartment, taking out the crew. No skirts were worn in this match. The tanker's combat dress was hardly distinguishable from the infantry's, besides it being lighter.

The small band of 90 men out of the original 130 continued their banzai charge. The group crashed through the enemy ranks like a river coursing its way through a dry riverbed. The torrent of men beat back the enemy, leaving nothing standing in their wake.

After a fierce battle, the two prongs met at the center of the slope. Only thirty of the group on the hill remained, while the attacking Australian force was annihilated. The Japanese team then hooked around the hill to counter attack the distraction force as they regrouped.

Having heard that the Japanese QRF had arrived, the crusaders and the remaining infantry were in the process of retreating when Dragon team, Hippo team, and Turtle team rounded the hill. Hedgehog team crested the ridge and fired down on the retreating enemy as the other tanks did the same. Only two tanks and a handful of infantry managed to escape the massacre.

"Anglerfish, this is Dragon. You're clear to assault the town." Luna radioed to Miho.

"Roger."

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" Kenji said, walking up to Luna's tank.

"Yeah, thought you could use the help." Luna replied.

"Captain!" A voice called through the crowd, "Captain!"

One of the boys came rushing down the hill and stopped in front of Kenji.

"Aito's hurt."

"Where?" Kenji asked. The two bolted back up the hill. Kenji's muscles burned from carrying the weight of his gear, but he carried on.

The two came to a stop by Reiki and another boy, who cradled Aito's head, a sizable piece of shrapnel protruding from his right shoulder.

"What happened?" Kenji asked.

"A shell shattered on the side of a Matilda and he caught a piece in the arm." Reiki answered. Reiki was using a rag to apply pressure to the wound.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kenji asked.

"Yeah, but I need your help to get the shrapnel out."

"What do you need me to do?" Kenji asked

"Hold him down while I pull out the shrapnel."

"Here? Did you give him anything for the pain?"

"No. I can't give him morphine, it's not legal."

"It's okay boss. I can handle it." Aito spoke up.

"Is it safe?" Kenji asked.

"Yeah. The shrapnel went through and through as far as I can tell."

"Alright." Kenji said, reassured by his medical officer's words.

"On one." Reiki said.

Kenji held Aito's upper body down while the other boy held is head and held his shoulders down.

"Three…" Reiki said grasping the piece of metal with latex covered hands.

"Two…" Reiki tightened his grip on the shrapnel.

"One!" As soon as the words left his mouth, Reiki yanked the piece of metal free from Aito's shoulder.

Reiki quickly took a series of cotton patches and pressed them down on the wound. He then took a bandage role from his medical kit and began to wrap it tightly over the cotton swatches.

As Reiki continued to bandage Aito's wound Kenji held up the piece of metal. The shard was about four inches long and about two inches wide. The three quarters of the shard that were buried in Aito's arm was still coated in blood.

"Souvenir." Kenji said, pressing the flat piece of metal into Aito's hand.

"Thanks."

"How is he?"

"He'll be fine." Reiki said.

Five minutes later, a UH-1 Huey helicopter with a red cross painted on its belly appeared and took Aito back to the field hospital outside the battle space to get treated.

"What's the status of Anglerfish team?" Kenji asked.

"They rolled into town about ten minutes ago. They're putting up the first flag." Kouri said as the helicopter sailed off into the distance.

* * *

**The Town. Day Three. 10 P.M.**

"That's one down." Miho said as the Japanese flag glided up the flagpole.

"I thought they would have at least more people guarding this place." One of the boys asked.

When they initially rolled into town, they found two line Matildas along with a handful of infantry and an M45 Half track. The two tanks were dispatched immediately, but the half-track took refuge behind a wall that was low enough to allow the quad-mounted .50 cals to do their work.

The machine guns racked the unarmored trucks as they crested the hill and took out half of the Japanese infantry before it was silenced by a shot from Anglerfish's main gun.

Being the only tank left to help with the attack after Kenji's sudden call for QRF at Devil's Blunder, Miho was hesitant of attacking the town. But after hearing how many tanks were being thrown at Kenji, she was eventually swayed to attack the town with the remaining infantry as the only support for Anglerfish.

After the brief firefight, their original force of 100 infantry was slashed to only fifty. Several Australian machine guns in the windows didn't help the situation either.

But, now it was a quiet night. The group moved on to the second flag at the center of town. They were driving down the Center of Main Street when a rocket sizzled out of a window and slammed into Anglerfish's engine deck. The tank was rendered out of action, but since their vests didn't register a kill, the girls were still in the fight.

"Contact!" The boys yelled as the buildings in front of them erupted with gunfire. The remaining truckloads of infantry wildly opened fire with SMGs and rifles.

"What do we do?" Saori asked.

"We don't have a choice." Miho said. She cycled a round into the chamber of her 9mm Luger and opened the commander's hatch.

Immediately, a round shot into the opening and ricocheted around the fighting compartment.

"That's not good." Miho said.

The girls took a deep breath and threw open their hatches. They spilled out of the tanks in time to see another rocket sizzle overhead and destroy the wall to an adjacent building.

Unlike Miho and Saori, Hana and Yukari both grabbed their M3 Grease Guns before they jumped out of the tank. All five girls scrambled for cover behind the trucks, while Mako picked up PPSh-41 off the ground.

Hana shouldered her weapon and attempted to fire at the attacking enemy only to have her weapon jam. She quickly ducked behind cover and attempted to fix the problem. She did everything she could remember but couldn't figure out the problem.

Upon careful examination she realized she had missed a very important detail. The hatch that spent cartridges are ejected out of was still shut. This was the weapon's equivalent to a safety and would not allow the weapon to fire.

She took aim ounce again and squeezed the trigger. The trigger was a lot more sensitive to the trigger on the 75mm, and she wasn't used to firing with her finger. This caused the gun to pull slightly to the left as the .45 cal rounds shot out of the barrel. Although the weapon didn't clime as much, the recoil from twenty .45 caliber founds driving into her shoulder was enough to throw her aim hopelessly off as well as leaving a nasty bruise.

She quickly reloaded and tried again. She saw how the boys fired in short bursts and tried to do the same. She squeezed the trigger again. It took a little while for her to get the rhythm of firing three to five rounds at a time, but she eventually began to land hits on a machine gun nest.

Miho was having a similar problem with her Luger. Although it wasn't automatic, she wasn't used to firing small arms. Pistols, especially, required a delicate touch. She learned of her inexperience first when an Australian trooper burst out of what appeared to be a saloon of sorts and charged her.

It took Miho five shots to finally hit him. When she did, she managed to hit him square in the chest, and he dropped to the ground.

She another Australian boy popped out from a group of sand bags by the Flag and quickly began to unload with a British made Sten gun, a mere thirty feet from the group. Miho took careful aim this time and fired again. The round struck the boy in the shoulder. Her next to shots missed the boy, skipping across the dirt at his feet. As she pulled the trigger a fourth time, the weapon made a distinctive _click_ signaling it was out of ammo.

The boy saw Miho firing at him and took aim with his own weapon. Miho had never been more terrified in her life. She had never had somebody shooting at _her_! Any time somebody had her in their sights, they were targeting the vehicle she was riding in, not the person within that vehicle.

She fumbled with the magazine attempting to reload. Her hands trembled as the adrenaline pumped through her system. She felt the boy's gaze bore into her, as he was about to pull the trigger. The magazine fell from her hand, as the shaking grew more intense. She searched desperately for it on the ground, but the black piece of metal eluded her.

Eventually she gave up and through the pistol at the boy, followed by her flashlight. She didn't know why she did it, but it appeared to be effective. Both items hit the boy dead on, causing him to drop his aim to shield himself. When she ran out of things to throw at him she looked for somewhere to hide.

The match rounds the group fired were some kind of chalk. They were slightly heavier than a real bullet and hard. They were filled with some kind chalk or paint. The match gunpowder wasn't strong enough to propel the bullets at actual speed, but still fast enough and far enough to be comparable to an actual weapon of the era. The characteristic _crack_ of a bullet passing overhead is replaced by a rather terrifying _whizz_.

When they hit, sometimes they would ricochet or could even penetrate wood in some cases, but when they hit a hard enough target, the bullets shattered, and painted the target red.

A long burst of machine gun fire tore through the air as dozens of these bullets slammed into the boy's chest. The impact was powerful enough to knock three days worth of dirt and grime loose of the boy's clothes and into the night air. Puffs of reddish smoke exploded from the boy's chest as the air was knocked from his body and he collapsed, firing off a burst of gunfire as the weapon was knocked from his grasp.

Miho was hit in the shoulder and instantly regretted standing in such an open position. The impact alone gave her a painful bruise, and the ensuing shock from a volt of electricity left her arm immobilized.

She turned around, still clutching her shoulder, to see Yukari's eyes staring past her goggles at the boy, her weapons barrel still smoking. Miho breathed a heavy sigh of relief at seeing her friend standing behind her. Her facemask concealed her emotions, but just barely.

Mako was busy spraying away at the buildings, laying down an impressive amount of suppressive fire, and allowing a squad of riflemen to take cover in the town center.

Their rifles were able to fire rifle grenades, and they wasted no time mounting the ordinance onto their weapons. The group took aim at one building and fired a volley. Several of the grenades merely bounced off the walls while the rest smashed through the window. The grenades went off simultaneously, showering the inhabitants of the building with rubber pellets.

The group reloaded their rifle-grenades and fired on the second building. After the second series of explosions, the guns fell silent, with the occasional _pop_ of a rifle or the _burp_ of an SMG. The buildings were quickly cleared completely as the Australian team's flag was replaced by that of the Japanese team's, which was the Oorai crest over two cross swords.

The group continued on and took the last flag, to the north west of the town. The Australian team gave no further resistance. The survivors of the night raid on Devil's blunder stood no chance of reaching the town in time to stop the inevitable. On the third night of the tournament, at approximately 11:00 pm Oorai took the town.

The remaining portion of the tournament saw what remained of both teams battle it out. The Australian team had been reduced to a handful of trucks, seventy infantry, and two Crusader tanks. They attempted to retake the town twice, and succeeded in retaking at least one flag each time, but were quickly repelled by Oorai's superior numbers, but not before inflicting heavy losses to the Japanese team.

The match drew to a close, and Oorai had managed a narrow victory over their numerically superior counterparts.

* * *

**Perth Docks. Day 8. 9 A.M.**

"Not bad." Trace said, smiling as she shook hands with Miho.

"Your team put up an excellent fight. You almost had us on the hill." Miho replied.

"You guys responded to that amazingly quick." Trace replied.

"Thanks. I hope we have you as an Ally during the tournament." Miho said.

"Likewise. If this is how you guys fight, then god help anyone who steps in the ring with Oorai."

The two finished shaking hands and returned to their ships by days end. At dinner, the entire team had gathered on the boy's ship in the mess hall where a massive celebration was being held. The battle had solidified the bond shared between the teams. They were no longer just pieces of a puzzle. They were a team.

"May I have everyone's attention!?" Kenji shouted over the noise of the party, "I'm am very proud of everyone here. Boys, you managed to put your ego away and swallow your pride. I know that can be a tough thing to digest but, in doing so, you proved that you are willing to stand and fight to the last man, or woman. And girls. I cannot thank you enough for all that you've done. You saved us more times than I care to mention. Without you, none of this would be possible."

The entire boys team stood up and faced one of the girls.

"_Arigato."_ The entire room echoed.

"And I would like to personally thank the girls who stood with us on that hilltop. I know that you're not really used to taking orders from me, but I am honored that you trusted me with your loyalty." Kenji said.

"Maybe you shouldn't have?" A voice called out from the far side of the room. Edo walked down the center aisle with a shit-eating smile on his face. In his hand he held a vanilla envelope.

"Attention, boys and girls of Oorai. Our dear commander Kenji Musashi has been hiding something. Some of you may know this already, but I have a feeling that the female majority does not. You believe that our great commander's judgment can keep you safe in this sport. I have evidence that says otherwise." Edo finished.

Kenji tensed up, realizing what Edo was saying.

"What are you talking about?" Nozomi called out.

"This man," Edo paused for a more dramatic effect, "Killed his sister."


	12. First Impressions

_Sup guys. Now, for those of you who have been following my story for a while now will have seen my last few attempts at a chapter 12 and all saw how disastrously that ended. Lets not sugar coat it people, the last chapter was a massive pile of steaming shit and it was terrible. I thought so, everybody thought so, and it pained me to post it. As a result, and thanks to a suggestion by Severstal, I have completely removed all traces of said chapter(s) from my account and my hard drive. I did everything accept print out a copy just to burn it which I seriously contemplated doing. Anyhow, enough with that. As it was suggested, I will come back to that particular detail later on in the story. THINGS WILL CHANGE! I am going to completely re-write the circumstances of Kenji's sister's death, and make it a little more bearable to read and write. We all know what's going to happen, but it just won't happen in this chapter, or any time in the immediate future. At the present, however, this is where we meet the rest of the alliance, and where people get assigned their Alliances. I'm gonna level with you, some parts of the alliances may have changed since I last posted them, but I don't know for sure because I'm pretty sure the last time I mentioned them was in one of the failed chapter 12 attempts and I deleted its existence before I wrote down the alliances I had planned. So...yeah, that's all I have to say for now and I will see you guys at the end of the page._

* * *

**First Impressions**

"This man killed his own sister!" Edo yelled over the crowd. His plan did not have the desired affect he was hoping for. Instead of turning on Kenji, the majority of the group began to defend their leader instead.

"Get out of here you lout!" one voice shouted.

"Nobody want's your bullshit!" Another yelled.

"It's not a lie!" Edo retorted.

"Yes it is! Your full of nothing but bullshit!"

"Go on, get out of here!" more voices began to shout, as a fist full of food flew across the room and hit Edo square in the back of the head.

"Listen to me!" Edo tried to argue, but soon more handfuls of food were being hurled at him.

"Fine!" Edo conceded, "If you wont listen to me, than it isn't worth my breath."

The boy quickly beat a hasty retreat out the main entrance followed by a few handfuls of food, and many more insults.

"Coward!"

"Worm!"

More people shouted. It wasn't long before the boy was chased from the building with his tail between his legs.

"Can you believe the audacity of that boy? Telling a lie like that!" Nakajima said.

Most of the others at the table agreed with her. They all heard the stories surrounding Edo, and his many prejudices. All but one person agreed with Nakajima. Sadoko had seen the look on Kenji's face when Edo mentioned his sister's death. Many of the boys knew Kenji had a deceased sister, so that came off as no surprise. But no one seemed to know the circumstances surrounding her death.

But the look in Kenji's eyes told her something. It wasn't the look of somebody who had been accused of a false crime. No. It was a look of pain. She knew something was afoot, and she was going to find out. But what she did with her information was still a mystery.

* * *

As the Oorai team neared the French coast, two months later, the students were greeted with the sight of the school ships from the U.K., America, and Australia. These ships dwarfed their Japanese counter parts. Even Kuromorimine would seem small compared to the ships from America and the U.K.

The U.S. and U.K. ships both broke off from the group and headed east for Lorient to disembark, while Australian ship continued into Brest with the rest of the Japanese fleet. In all, five ships were disembarking at Brest, two from Australia, and the three from Japan. Brest harbor only had one docking area large enough to accommodate an academy ship, so the other ships sped up the process by using their ferries to unload the smaller arms of their teams. Both tankery teams finished first, while the aerial and infantry branches of the teams took well into the night to unload.

The Australians kept the infantry and aerial teams on the same ship, which allowed them to disembark faster, but the Japanese had two separate ships. Meaning, one would use their ferries to unload. That, decidedly, was the ship carrying the infantry.

It wasn't till eight o'clock that the last of the equipment had been unloaded, and the last ship had left the docks. Every person participating in the tournament had gone through their customs check and had been "checked" by the authorities. The tanks and aircraft were all moved to a staging area, while the students were moved to what amounted to a barracks near Rennes.

The groups got to the barracks at around eleven o'clock that night. They were quickly assigned a room and went strait to sleep.

"I'm tired." Mako said in her usual deadpan tone.

"I know." Saori said as she adjusted the girl's weight on her shoulder as the girls of Anglerfish team headed to their assigned room.

"I still can't believe it took so long." Hana said. The five girls quickly found their assigned rooms and said goodnight. In three days, they would be deployed to the competition area.

Ten countries were participating in this event. It is the largest international event in history, dwarfing even the Olympics. The whole event will be three months long and take place in four different countries and two continents. Millions of people will be watching, and thousands will be participating. The pressure was most definitely on.

* * *

The next day Miho, Kenji, and Akio were summoned to a meeting room in the main complex of the camp where they would be assigned to their alliances.

The way the tournament would work is that the ten teams were separated into two alliances of five. Then, each alliance would battle for control of a ninety thousand square kilometer battle space over a five-day period. Whoever controls the most territory within the battle space, or manages to demolish their opponents' forces would be the victor of that round. There were six battle spaces set up. One in France, one in Germany, one in Poland, and three in Russia.

When they arrived, commanders of the other teams greeted them.

Within seconds of entering the room, a tall boy wearing the dress uniform of the a grey coat, black pants and a green beret, introduced himself, "Guten Morgen."

"Ich bin Johan Winter. Die deutsche Infanterei Kommandeur. Es ist gut, Sie zu treffen. Das ist-" The boy stopped as he noticed the confused look on Miho's face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget that I'm speaking German."

"It's okay. I get that way sometimes as well. Although, it's not usually as big of a problem." Miho said.

"Still, my apologies. As I was saying, I am Johan Winter. Commander of the German Infantry team. These are my colleagues, I'll let the Introduce themselves." Johan said. His English was very good, with only a subtle hint of an accent. The boy was also about Kenji's height and had brown hair and brown eyes and white skin.

"My name is Greta Rommel. Tankery commander." Greta said. She was about Yukari's height, and had the same skin color as Johan, if only a slight shade darker. She kept her blonde hair in a normal ponytail that flowed down to the small of her back.

"Did you say Rommel?" Miho couldn't help asking.

"Yes. Unfortunately there is no relation to Erwin Rommel. I have studied his work extensively, though." Greta replied.

"Nice to meet you. Sorry for the confusion, it's just I know a couple of girls that would freak out if you were…you know." Miho said, with a nervous smile.

"Don't worry. Happens a lot to me."

"My name is Siegfried Richthofen. Aerial commander." Another boy said. He was the same height as Johan, and had auburn hair and blue eyes, and he spoke with a far more pronounced accent.

"Richthofen?" Akio said, "Did you, by chance, participate in a old school competition last year in Florida?"

"Indeed I did. Did I shoot you down, per chance?" Siegfried said jokingly.

"No, but I loved that match. You know I got my start in an old Fokker D7?"Akio said, in an obviously excited tone.

"Really? Well, I hope we get a chance to meet in the air." Siegfried said.

"Unlikely. I mostly fly Sturmoviks now. My fighter training is a little rusty." Akio replied.

"Well, your reputation precedes you. It's not every day you get to meet somebody who's managed to get a fighter kill while flying a dive-bomber. If ever you change your mind, just look out for the FW-190 with the yellow nose. That's me." Siegfried said.

"Will do."

"I'm sorry, but what's an 'old school' competition'?" Kenji asked.

"It's when you only allowed to fly World War One era fighter aircraft. In the match I was talking about, Siegfried shot down seven aircraft in as many minutes."

"Impressive." Kenji said.

After they finished conversing with the German commanders, they moved on and bumped into a girl wearing an Ushanka. The girl was about Yukari's height and had black hair and fairly pale skin.

"Privet." The girl said.

"Hi," Miho stammered slightly, "I'm Miho Nishizumi. Commander of the Japanese tank squadron." Miho said.

"Da, I've heard of you. My I'm Sasha Kaidanovsky. Commander of the Russian tankery team. This is my brother, Alexi, he commands the Infantry." Sasha said, gesturing to a taller boy that towered over the group. The boy had blonde hair and lightly tanned skin with green eyes.

"Nice to meet you." Alexi said in a thick accent, unlike his sister who spoke with a more refined English accent.

"And I'm Anastasia Kovic. Aerial commander." Another girl with Auburn hair and a lightly freckled face said.

"Nice to meet you." Miho said, and allowed Kenji and Akio to introduce themselves.

"These guys aren't bothering you, are they?" A boy with a thick southern drawl said.

"No, we were just introducing ourselves. I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are. Miss Nishizumi. I've heard a lot about you…Jeff Davis, Infantry Commander, at your service," The boy said sticking out his hand, "So do you speak Russian?"

"No, Only English and Japanese, and a little German." Miho replied.

"Well, shit, I only speak English, and even that ain't to good." The boy said. Unlike a lot of the others in the room, the boy was dressed in blue jeans, a plaid button up shirt covered in a leather jacket, and a Stetson. He had brown eyes, and red hair, and stood about the same height as Kenji.

"Kenji Musashi." Kenji said, shaking the boys hand when it was presented to him.

"I heard of you to. You do know a Kouri Higashihara, right?" Jeff asked.

"Yes. He's my second in command."

"That's awesome. I heard about that shot he made. Hell of a record. I got my own boy named Tex. He's a strait shooter, that one. Fantastic shot. He's from Texas, like me, and He's been eyeing that record of your friends for some time."

"Really?" Kenji said in mock surprise, "Well, I guess it will be interesting to see when the two of them meet."

"Yes it will," Jeff paused, "I'm sorry, I'm just babbling on. This here's my Tankery commander, Jessica Black, and my Aerial commander, Jack Thompson."

"Hi." Each of them said as they were introduced, taking a moment to shake hands. Both of them were dressed in their standard dress BDUs unlike their leader.

"So, what school are you guys from?" Kenji asked. It was the first time any of them had asked the question.

"Well my team is from the Vanguard Military Academy outside of Austin, Texas. Jack's team is from the Alaskan Military Academy, if you can believe it, and Jess' here is from the DC Aeronautics School."

"That's a fairly diverse group." Akio said.

"Indeed. But, that's the great thing about America. It's a big cocktail of ethnicities if you think about it."

"I guess that's true."

"Any way, I'll let you guys get back to getting acquainted with everyone." Jeff said as he walked away. By this time the Russians had already moved on and were talking to trace.

"Don't let him bother you," Came a woman's voice with a hint of a Scottish accent, "He likes to talk a lot."

"Hi." Miho said in surprise as she turned around to see the voices owner.

"Alana Wallace, Tankery Commander of the U.K." Alana said. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was also about Miho's height and had lightly tanned skin and a lightly freckled face that was almost angelic.

"Miho Nishizumi." Miho replied.

"Kenji Musashi."

"Akio Mitsubishi."

"I'm David Travis, infantry commander." A stocky, muscular boy said in a slight Irish accent. The boy had red hair and pale skin and stood eye level with Alana.

"Nice to meet you." Miho replied.

"Roxanne Harris. Most people call me 'Roxy'. I'm the Aerial commander." Roxy said in a distinctly British accent.

"Nice to meet you." Miho said as they shook hands.

"Likewise." Roxy replied.

"I guess I'll see you guys on the fields." Alana said as they took a seat.

After a few minutes another group came up to introduce themselves.

"Hei. My name is Ari Aalto. Finnish Infantry."

"Miho Nishizumi, Japanese Tankery commander."

"Nice to meet you. Sorry to be so blunt, but I think it's starting soon but this is Arto Heikki, our tankery commander, and Anni Linna, Aerial commander." Ari said.

"Nice to meet you." Miho said. The group went on to introduce themselves more before a large man walked into the room and began to speak.

"Alright, if everyone could take a seat." He said in an obviously French accent. Soon, everyone was seated in a number of chairs arranged in a circle around the center of the room.

"Good day to you all, my name is François Abel. I am the director of the IWGC, and I would like to welcome you to my country, and congratulate you on being able to take part in the largest international event in history. You have selected your teams, and perfected your tactics, and have trained hard. Now, in just three short days, all your work and preparation will be put to the test." Abel said.

"Now, the purpose of this meeting is so you may finally know which teams you will be fighting against, and who you will be standing alongside. The first alliance which, for all intents and purposes, will be referred to as Alliance One will be made up of the teams from Japan, Australia, France, Italy, and Poland." Adel said. A small applause was evoked from the crowd.

"The second alliance, which will be referred to as Alliance Two, will be made up of the teams from America, the U.K., Finland, Germany, and Russia. I will give you a moment to get acquainted with anybody you haven't met yet. Good luck, and god speed." Adel finished before leaving the room.

"Halo," A girl said as she extended her hand towards Miho, "I'm Adelaide Adamczak. People call me Ada. I'm the Polish Tankery commander." The Polish girl said with barely a hint of an accent. She barely stood taller than Miho, and her pail skin contrasted nicely with her jet-black hair.

"Nice to meet you." Miho said shaking the girl's hand.

"This is Aleksey Bartosz. Infantry commander. And Berta Bukoski. Aerial commander." Ada said, gesturing to the two members of her team that flanked her. Aleksey was about an inch taller than Kenji and had blonde hair, while Berta was about Hana's height with red hair. Her eyes were constantly hidden behind a pair of sunglasses.

"I'm Miho Nishizumi. This is Kenji Musashi, and Akio Mitsubishi." Miho said.

"It's a pleasure. So, what do you guys specialize in?" Ada asked.

"What do you mean?" Miho responded.

"Well, for instance, we specialize in night fighting. The Finns are experts at winter warfare and defense. The Russians specialize in open warfare. The Germans specialize in blitzkrieg tactics and armored warfare. Get what I mean?" Ada responded.

"Oh, I guess…Guerilla tactics, I guess." Miho said unconfidently.

"Really? That will come in handy."

"Bonjour." Another French voice said. Miho looked to see two boys about the same height, and one girl that was just a few inches shorter. They wore green camouflage fatigues with a white undershirt with blue stripes.

"Hi." Miho said.

"I'm Pierre Agustin. I'm the French infantry commander." The boy to the far left said in a light accent. He was about Kenji's height, had tan skin, and kept his hair tucked under the white cap of his dress uniform. He had blue eyes and a small black mustache below his nose.

"I'm Philippe Roache. Aerial commander." The boy said. He to kept his hair beneath a white cap, and had no facial hair besides his black eye brows that blended in nicely with his black skin.

"I'm Amy Bellerose. Tankery commander." The girl said. She kept her blonde hair in a bun that poked out, just below her cap. She wasn't pale, but wasn't as tan as Pierre.

"I'm Miho Nishizumi." Miho began.

"Don't worry, we heard you when you introduced yourself to Ada." Amy said.

"Ok, good because that was getting exhausting." Miho joked, eliciting a laugh from the group.

"So, Miho, what kind of tank do you command?" Amy asked.

"A Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. J." Miho said, a hint of pride present on her face.

"Really? Those things are hell and dangerous." Amy said.

"What about you?" Kenji asked.

"Char B1 Bis. About half of our tank force consists of them. The other half is made up of SOMUA S35s." Amy replied.

"Not bad. How many tanks do you have total?" Akio asked.

"About fifty." Amy replied.

"Their good, but how will they stand up to the other tanks that our opponents have?" Kenji said, pointing out the elephant in the room.

"We can hold our own, but truth is our tanks will be outmatched. We have numbers, but that's about it. We can handle the infantry, and any light tanks they through at us, but when they start rolling out the big guns, our armor will be little more than really effective road blocks." Amy said.

"Oh…so-" Miho began, but was cut off.

"Artillery," Pierre spoke up, "We have the best artillery unit in all the nations. Over fifty batteries of various calibers. That, and our overwhelming number of infantry. No less than five hundred troops."

"Wow." Miho said.

"Impressive, no? I will show you when we get into the field." Pierre said.

"Ah, Pierre. There you are," said a boy in an Italian accent, "How is everything?"

"Good, Lorenzo, this is Miho Nishizumi. Our allies from Japan." Pierre said.

"Ah, and what a beautiful specimen you are," Lorenzo said, "I'm sorry, I should introduce myself, I am Lorenzo Petrucci. Italian infantry commander." Lorenzo said. He had jet-black hair that he kept short and spikey at the front. His blue eyes went nicely with his pale skin. He stood at eye level with Akio.

"Hi." Miho said nervously.

"Aren't you full of energy." Akio said.

"Ah, you should see my brother. You would never believe we are related. Lazy, arrogant, and can't talk to a girl to save his life."

"Well, I can name at least two things you to have in common." Akio quipped.

"Oh, you have fire in you. I like that." Lorenzo said before a girl came up behind him and slapped him in the back of the head, shouting in Italian while waving her arms. Lorenzo quickly babbled something back while he massaged the back of his head, still reeling from the slap.

"I'm sorry about my cousin. He gets like that around girls. He thinks he's so manly sometimes…*sigh*… family, you just have to take them as they are." The girl said.

"I know the feeling." Akio replied.

"I'm sorry, I'm Camilla Abbadelli. Italian Tankery commander."

"Hi. I'm Miho Nishizumi." Miho said shaking the girls hand.

"Hi. I'm Kenji Musashi."

"Akio Mitsubishi."

"Nice to meet you. This is Alberto Abelli. Our Aerial commander." Camilla said.

"Nice to meet you." Alberto said. He was taller than Kenji and had Brown hair and brown eyes. His skin was somewhere between Caucasian and tan, while he sported a thin black mustache that didn't go pas the edges of his lips.

"It's nice to be serving with you." Miho said.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but unfortunately I have some business I need to take care of. One of my drivers just broke up with her boy friend, and Lorenzo, your brother is killing me." Camilla said, turning to her cousin and reverting back to Italian.

"I told you, the boy wouldn't be that good." Lorenzo said holding up his hands in defense.

"No you didn't, you said it would be easy. And for your information Danilo is a fantastic driver, but he spends more time sleeping and playing volleyball then he does actually practicing." Camilla said.

"Alright, I'll talk to him."

"Please do."

The group soon dispersed and returned to their dorms. The next few days were meant to be a resting period, where everybody was allowed to settle in to their temporary homes and even allowed to do a little sight seeing.

When Miho returned to her room, she took out a black portfolio that was filled with papers. Folder was the only information she had on her opponents and allies. The only information it gave was preferred tactics, fighting styles, various strengths and weaknesses, specialties, and the name of the team's leader. It had this for each commander of each team's, infantry, tankery, and air forces.

Miho wanted to spend as much time getting to know her opponents as best she could. Checking and double-checking information all night long.

The next day, Yukari decided to ask Miho if she wanted to join the rest of the girls for a cup of coffee. When she knocked on the door for the fourth time, she decided to let herself in.

"Nishizumi-dono?" Yukari said as she poked her head into the room. Her attention was immediately drawn to the desk, where Miho had passed out reading a folder full of information. Looking over her friend, Yukari decided that she needed her rest. She gently placed a blanket over her friend and shut the door.

"_I'll just bring some back for her."_ Yukari said to herself. It was a fairly chilly morning, and the forecast called for a heavy storm for the next few days.

"This will be interesting." Yukari muttered to herself as she saw the storm clouds roll in.

* * *

_Well, hope you guys enjoy this chapter more than the last couple attempts. I just had to move on from the failures. I just couldn't focus on it. As it turns out, I'm not very skilled at writing super emotional stuff like that, but am great at writing battles. Thanks again to severstal for suggesting the idea that kicked off the beginning. Much appreciated. Next chapter is when the fighting starts. Promise. Anyway, like always feel free to R&amp;R and F&amp;F. Nothing hurtful, no put downs or insults. Only constructive criticism is allowed here. If you all you have to offer are insults then go ahead and shove it up yours. And as always, Semper Fi carry on._


	13. Ayo Gorkhali!

_Sup guys, and happy forth of July. I will admit, not a lot happens in this chapter. But I was board and I thought 'Gee, I haven't posted anything here reccently' so I figured why the hell not. Do take that into consideration while writing your reviews. Just a heads up, the places these battles take place are, more or less, real places. They are real locations in France. I actually mapped out the battle space on my ArcGIS account so I would have an easier time orientating myself. With that said, it won't always be like that. Sometimes there will be a geographical feature (i.e. hills, ridges, rivers, streams, etc) where I just make it up entirely. I'll probably tell you that that certain feature is fake if I remember to. Any way that's all I have to say here. Hope you guys like it, and I will see you at the bottom of the page._

* * *

**Ayo Gorkhali!**

The rain fell in heavy globs and hammered at the drenched fields of France that were about to be transformed into battlefield, the likes of which haven't been seen for over half a century.

The air was cold, and a thick fog rolled in, obscuring the small group of Italian tanks scouting a small field near a small town of Les Chavignats. The group consisted of one P 40, five Semovente 75/46s, and one Semovente 105/25. Danilo Petrucci sat in the driver's seat of the 105. His commander, and cousin, Camilla stuck her head out of the hatch and glassed the area with her field glasses. The thick fog made it difficult to see anything past fifty meters.

A gust of cold wind blew through the open hatch as the rain continued to drench the ground they rested on. In the distance, a bolt of lighting struck the ground sending the low groan of thunder rolling through the lands.

The tanks were painted an olive drab green that was the same color of their uniforms and the uniforms the infantry wore. Looking out his small view port at the shallow fighting hole dug in front of him made him pity the poor sod sitting in it. The muddy clay stuck to his uniform and prevented the water from draining from the hole quickly, meaning he was laying in a small puddle. But he took on the chin, and continued to wait in the downpour.

One of the tanks had driven into a muddy ditch and gotten stuck in the mud. The rain didn't do any favors, as the ground within the pit was completely saturated. The track became stuck, and in their attempts to pull them out, the track broke.

The P 40 quickly towed the tank from the hole, but the group had to wait for a good half hour before the track was fully repaired.

"Finally," Danilo said, "On the road again."

The group had been ordered to head sixteen kilometers north west of the main force and scout the area near Les Chavignats before departing from the road to scout the woods to the east then rejoining another tank platoon at Les Sagots, and continue south to La Ruesse. As Danilo started up the engine, something caught his commander's eye in the wood line.

"_Cosa?_" she said before a rocket whizzed past the turret followed by a hail of bullets.

"_Contatto, venti metri!" _She yelled in Italian, meaning, "Contact, twenty meters!"

"Fuoco!" somebody ordered through the radio before the group of twenty infantry began to unload on the enemy in the tree line.

The wood line in front of them was alight with muzzle flashes from what appeared to be two MG-42s as a horrible buzzing noise filled the air, as if a chainsaw were revving up. The characteristic _whizz_ of the safety rounds filled the air. What appeared to be fifty or so infantry armed with Kar98ks and STG 44s filled the trees.

The Italians responded in kind with their Beretta Model 38s and Carcano M1938 carbines. The boy sitting in front of Danilo's tank opened fire with his Breda 30 light machine gun. Several boys scrambled to the back of one of the Lancia 3RO trucks the boys had been traveling in. From it they retrieved a Breda M37 heavy machine gun and tripod before returning to the front line and began to set it up. It didn't take long for the weapon to be set up, and within minutes the group was hammering away at the approaching enemy along with the Breda M38s on the tanks and tank destroyers.

The two groups held their ground, hammering away at each other when, suddenly, a two Panzer IV Ausf Gs rolled out of the woods. The two cannons simultaneously spat flames and belched thunder, sending the HE rounds hurtling towards their targets. One round slammed into the front of one of the Semovente 75s and knocked it out of the fight.

"Traverse right!" Camilla. The tank destroyer slowly began to rotate right as the second shell glanced off the side of the tank.

The one-hundred-five millimeter gun belched smoke and flame and sent the shell strait into the tracks of the first Panzer Iv. The P 40 fired its own cannon and put the medium tank out of its misery.

"Drive!" Camilla barked as the second panzer continued to advance on their position. A volley of thunder erupted from the rest of the tank destroyers as their HE rounds slammed into the approaching enemy blanketing them with explosions. Two Germans with Panzerfausts loosed their lethal weapons at the Semovente 105.

"Incoming!" Camilla yelled, but Danilo had seen them coming. He jerked the tank destroyer to the left and skillfully dodged the first rocket, before pulling the vehicle to an abrupt halt, allowing the second rocket to sail past the front of the tank.

As the tank destroyer rocked backwards and came to a stop, the vehicle was facing the flank of the approaching Panzer IV. Camilla quickly fired the cannon and the round slammed into the side of the tank, shoving it to one side, its white flag hanging limply in the storm.

A moment later, a high pitched whistling noise was heard over head and a hail of light mortars began to rain down on the group. The 5 cm Granatwerfer 36s in the tree line began to pound their enemy mercilessly. Danilo quickly turned the tank around facing the enemy once more. Another Panzerfaust shot out from the forest and landed next to the tank destroyer.

A moment later, a mortar landed on the other side of the tank destroyer and the whole vehicle rocked angrily with the shockwave.

Camilla slammed her foot down on the firing pedal and sent another HE round into the forest. The round exploded in mid air, indicating a good hit. A split second later another volley of rounds from the other tank destroyers followed suit. Many exploded in mid air, inflicting massive casualties on the enemy. What was left of the attacking force scrambled back into the woods.

"Is everyone okay?" Camilla asked.

Danilo looked up to her and babbled something in Italian that she only half understood on account of his words moving to fast.

"Good to here." Camilla said.

"Casualty report?" She said into the radio.

"We're down ten infantry. The trucks gone, and we lost two tank destroyers." A girl responded.

"Copy. Salvage what you can, and get our casualties on the truck and take them to the CCP," Camilla ordered, "Alright, let's move out!"

* * *

"Hold up!" Amy Bellerose said as her tank column approached the area where they were supposed to meet up with the Italian tank squad.

Minutes passed without incident. The rain continued to pour down like a torrent.

"It must be the end of days." Amy said.

"Yeah no kidding. Hey, somebody call Noah, ask him how that Arc is coming." Her driver joked. The joke was made all the funnier because the group knew a Noah. He was the captain of squad of infantry in the lorry behind them.

"Hey does anybody hear that?" The 47mm gunner said. The group quieted down for a moment and listened. The sound of rain thundering down on the outside of the tank was replaced with the thunderous drone of several SPA 15TB M-15 diesel engines.

Soon four Italian tank destroyers and one P 40 heavy rolled out of the tree line next to the road. Camilla poked her head out of the hatch of one of the tank destroyers and waved.

"About time you showed up." Amy said.

"We ran in to a little trouble on the way over." Camilla said.

Amy eyed the bullet markings on the side of the tanks.

"I can imagine." Amy replied. A flurry of gunfire picked up in the distance.

"Alright. Where to next?" Camilla asked.

"La Ruesse. Half a click south." Amy said.

The tank column continued down the road to La Ruesse. As they approached a small cluster of buildings of what seemed to be a farm appeared through the mist. The infantry dismounted from their vehicles, and the unit fanned out into the small field and advanced slowly towards the farm.

As they reached the small cluster of buildings, the tanks set up a perimeter, while the infantry searched the houses. They cleared the buildings quickly and effectively and found no trace of the enemy.

"Right," Camilla said, "Call it in. Tell Pierre we ran into a little resistance on the way over here, but otherwise La Ruesse is clear."

"Yes ma'am." Her radio operator replied.

The French team's current infantry captain, Noah, was quick to set up a perimeter. His men quickly dug foxholes and fighting positions while setting up machine gun positions in the upper floors of the house.

"All units, give me a SITREP." Noah said into the radio.

"Section one, all clear!" one of his lieutenants responded over the radio.

"Section two, clear!" Replied another.

"Section three, all quiet here." Said another.

"Section four, same here."

"Right, keep your eyes peeled, we're bedding down for-" Noah was cut off when a loud howling noise filled the air.

"That's not good." Noah said. The next thing he knew he was lying face down in the dirt with church bells ringing in his ears. His body covered in a thick layer of dirt.

His eyes darted around, looking for any clue as to what happened. He saw his men darting from their houses and running for cover. Some ducked in their fighting holes, while others jumped under the tanks.

"Screaming meemies!" He heard through the ringing in his ears.

The ground shook violently as if god were slamming his fists down upon the earth. One of the rockets landed on one of the buildings and tore a gapping hole in the roof and destroyed part of the wall.

Noah quickly rose shakily to his feet and darted for cover. His legs felt like jelly, and his knees buckled. He just managed to throw himself beneath Amy's Char B1 Bis. The tank shook violently as the rockets continued to rain down on them.

"Contact, three hundred meters to the east!" A voice crackled through the radio of Amy's tank.

"Is anybody still operational." Amy asked.

"All tanks still operational!" Camilla's voice crackled through the radio.

"Tank four, is out of action." One of the French tank commanders said.

"Tank six is down." Another said.

"What are we looking at?" Amy asked.

"Looks like a Centurion, two Crusaders, three Cromwell scout tanks, and twenty five infantry." Camilla said.

"Alright. All tanks, orient east." Amy said. Slowly, the French heavies began to turn to face their enemy. The Centurion was the first to fire. The shell slammed into the front of one of the Chars, and knocked it out.

Camilla immediately slammed her foot down on the firing pedal. The big one-oh-five roared as the shell slammed into the turret ring of the Centurion. The tank erupted in flames and ground to a halt. The other five tanks continued their advance and the infantry unleashed their lethal barrage of machine gun fire. Camilla could tell from their weapons that they were British infantry. But something was off. The group of infantry that were attacking seemed…shorter. No more than five feet at the most.

They moved quickly across the mud without falter. Camilla looked closer and saw large, strange looking knives hanging from their belts, while some had them mounted on their backs.

Then the group did something that shocked everyone. In the middle of an open field under heavy machine gun fire, they stopped. All twenty five of them held fast against the torrent of machine gun fire and drew their Khukuri knives and thrust them into the air. That's when she heard one of them yell at the top of his lungs. His voice filled with defiance and tenacity.

"Jai Mahakali! Ayo Gorkhali!"

"Ayo Gorkhali!" The rest shouted. Their voices rolled over the battlefield like a wave of thunder. The anger and dedication steadfast in their voices. The men began moving again. They went from a dead stop to a full sprint in almost no time at all, and quickly began to close the distance.

"Shit. Gurkhas!" Camilla radioed to Amy.

"Copy." Amy responded. Although none of them had personally dealt with the Gurkhas, they all knew the legends of their ferocity. The Heishi-dou community in Nepal was small, but it was there. It was not uncommon for small Gurkha platoons to be imbedded with British infantry teams.

And today, it looked like the Royal Military Institute of Dublin seemed to have such an ace up their sleeves.

"Alright, whatever you do don't engage in hand to hand combat." Noah radioed to his men. The team immediately began to unload on the attacking enemy with everything they were worth. It was like shooting a BB gun at an angry elephant. A small elephant with rabies and a tiger riding on its back.

In infantry, there was a rule that if you get shot and you go down, you're considered dead. However, if you get shot, and you remain standing (meaning not letting _both_ knees touch the ground) then you can still technically participate in the fight as long as you can overcome the electric shocks.

The Irish were terrifying enough for being able to withstand numerous impacts from the match rounds, but the Gurkhas took it one step further. As the horde of men charged the enemy lines, those that were hit shrugged it off as if it were but a bee sting.

"This is not good!" Noah said frantically into his radio.

The angry wall of meat continued to charge towards the group of buildings, unwavering and under heavy enemy fire. A handful of the men dropped to the ground after several volleys of machine gun and rifle fire.

The tanks continued to fire on both sides. Shells whizzed overhead and the small guns of the Cromwells glance off the thick armor of the French tanks. The Italian tank destroyers used their French comrades as cover from the hellish bombardment. The French guns roared with anger, and the seventy-five millimeter rounds slammed into the oncoming enemy, ripping two of the Cromwells apart. The Crusaders responded in kind. The tanks quickly broke formation and began a sort of flanking maneuver. One tank went left while the other went right, and the last one continued strait up the center. The British tankers managed to get shots off at then only spot vulnerable to their small guns. The tanks took aim at the exhaust vent on the flanks of the French heavies. Two of the large beasts burst into flames as their knockout flags shot up into the stormy breeze.

The metal beasts continued to close the distance. The Italian tank destroyers continued to advance out of cover and fire at their targets. The superior firepower eventually overwhelmed the British tanks, as the final Cromwell burst into flames.

"Last tank down." Camilla said.

"We still got infantry closing fast!" Noah shouted through the radio.

The Gurkhas closed the last one hundred meters rapidly and slammed into the Franco-Italian forces. Several men were tackled to the ground and dealt with by a swift blow to the head from the rubber padded, wooden replicas of the infamous Khukuri knives. Others broke through the lines and sprayed the retreating infantry with their Sten SMGs and Enfield rifles. As the group pulled back, another group of twenty-five unseen Gurkhas slammed into the right flank of the Franco-Italian lines.

Gurkhas climbed onto the roofs of the several of the Char B1s and Italian seventy-five millimeter tank destroyers. They forced the hatches open and dropped grenades into the fighting compartment, eliminating the crew.

The ground was a mess of mud covered humans as the French and Italians attempted to stave off their attacker in hand to hand combat. The some of the French managed to drop several of the Gurkhas with sell placed shots from their MAS-36 rifles but were soon cut down by a hail of gunfire from a Sterling SMG.

"Retreat!" Camilla ordered. The tanks quickly began to withdraw as one of the Gurkhas appeared with a PIAT and began firing rounds into the sides of the remaining tanks. Amy's Char B1 and Camilla's Semovente 105 managed to get away, but their comrades were quickly cut down by the charging wave of fierce little men.

The infantry was a bit slower to react as they were still, more or less, caught up in a massive mud wrestling contest with the Gurkhas. They quickly broke down the doors to the buildings and took them over while the remaining French defenders retreated outside.

Noah quickly parried a decapitating strike with the stock of his MAS-36. He drove the rubber bayonet into the gut of his attacker and drove him to the ground. He then brought the rifle back and drove the stock into the face of another attacking Gurkha coming up behind him. The man fell to the ground and Noah drove his bayonet into him.

The rifle was knocked from his hands by another Gurkha wielding a Khukuri. The blade narrowly missed his hands. He quickly pulled out his Model 1935 and pumped a shot into the chest of his attacker at point blank range. The boy stumbled for a moment before falling to the ground, having been hit several other times.

Two more boys charged him, Khukuris flailing, and were met with several more shots to the chest. Noah emptied his magazine into the two boys who eventually went down. He pulled out his Camillus combat knife in time to catch another attacker by the arm and threw him to the ground. Noah landed on top of the boy and drove the knife into his abdomen. He rose to his feet and quickly took a fighting stance.

The French team were well trained in Savate, a French style of kick boxing. Another boy took a swing at his head, which Noah ducked. He drove his left fist into the boy's side, followed by a right cross to his face. Noah finished the boy off with a powerful haymaker from his left arm. The boy flew into the ground, and Noah turned to face his next attacker.

Another boy attacked him, screaming at him from behind. Noah reacted immediately with a backwards hook kick, that knocked the boy to the floor. One of the boys behind him raised himself to his feet and lunged at Noah.

Noah hit him with a backwards hook kick. He followed the attack with a well placed whip kick with the same leg. The two kicks landed within seconds of each other and the boy fell to the ground. Another boy rose to his feet and was instantly dropped by another backwards whip kick.

Noah turned around and saw another Gurkha standing in front of him. His Khukuri drawn, and lowered to his side. His face, although hidden by a mask, was expressionless while his eyes were filled with a near predatory focus.

Noah raised his Camillus to his side and took up a fighting stance. The boy let out a fierce scream before attempting to split Noah's skull down the middle. Noah leaned back slightly and dodged the strike. He countered by lunging at the boy, who stepped backwards. Noah was planning on this. As the boy moved backwards, Noah drove his leg into the back of the boy's ankles, causing him to fall to the ground. Noah pressed the attack and attempted to stab the boy while he was down.

The boy rolled away and regained his footing, flicking the mud from his blade. The two exchanged several more attacks. Each one missing by centimeters. Noah flipped the knife around so the blade was facing the ground and slashed several times at the boy. Each strike missed by mere inches. Noah began to grow frustrated. The fighting around them was still going on, and the tanks had begun their retreat while the PIAT rounds chased them away. He wasn't even sure if the Tankers knew they were missing their infantry. All of them were, after all, turned in after the artillery strike.

Over head, the hoarse howl of artillery shells flew over head and continued to chase the tanks off. The infantry were on their own.

Noah raised his arm above his head, and brought the knife down on the boy. The boy caught Noah's arm, and proceeded to try and force Noah to drop the knife by bending his arm backwards. Noah thought quickly and dropped the knife into his other hand and swung his arm in the opposite direction with a loud grunt. The knife sliced across the boy's abdomen and would have eviscerated him, if it were real. Not that it would have mattered. The kill detector gave a small shock in the impacted area, but the Gurkha boy didn't show any signs of slowing down.

He swung wildly at his opponent who eventually dropped his Camillus into the mud. Noah combat rolled away from the boy and picked up a combat machete discarded by one of his allies. With the false blade in hand, he took up a fencing stance towards his opponent. The blades clashed in a hurricane of anger and testosterone. Each boy took turns swinging their blade at the other, who simply parried it away and counter attacked before the cycle continued again.

The Gurkha was an expert with his blade, but Noah was also. Having taking fencing lessons since he was eight. He eventually landed another strike to the boy's leg and attempted to finish the fight, by delivering a killing blow to the head. The blade was knocked to the side as the boy regained his footing.

Noah made for another attack, but the boy ducked under him and combat rolled behind him. He delivered a powerful blow to the back of Noah's knee, causing him to fall to the ground. He caught himself with the his knife and quickly limped away, returning to his stance.

If the Gurkha boy wasn't wearing a mask, Noah would have seen a right smirk cross his face. Noah made another attempt to strike the boy's head and end the fight once and for all. The boy ducked his attacker's blade, with his left leg, he lunged forward and stepped slightly off of Noah's line of advance, creating a gap just big enough for his body to fit through. He spun himself around on the ball of his foot, bringing his blade into contact with Noah's abdomen and coming out the other side facing his back. He quickly brought his Khukuri down across Noah's back.

Noah fell to his knees as the Gurkha boy leapt into the air with a mighty battle cry, his blade extended in a large sweeping arc that would decapitate any foe if the blade were real.

Noah awaited the final blow and closed his eyes. Just as he thought the painful blow would come…it didn't. All he felt was the edge of the fake blade touching the right side of his neck. He opened his eyes and looked to his right to see the boy standing there with the knife at his throat now. The look on his face was obvious, even through the mask.

"_I win."_ The look said. Noah was still waiting for the final blow to be delivered. After a few seconds had passed, the Gurkha boy simply tapped the back of Noah's helmet with his blade, causing him to fall over in shock.

A scream erupted from behind him as another French soldier charged the boy with a rifle and bayonet. The Gurkha boy slapped the blade to the side and struck the boy in the face with his Khukuri. The boy fell to the ground as an Italian soldier charged them. The Gurkha turned to him and hurled the massive blade at his chest. The thirteen inch piece of rubber and wood flipped end over end and slammed into the boy, who fell to the ground. The last of the Franco-Italian infantry; defeated.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" The boy said retrieving his blade and raising to the air.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" The remaining Gurkhas yelled. There were only about twenty or so of them left. All were heavily wounded and exhausted from the fight.

The Gurkha boy walked over to Noah and lifted him to his feet before giving him a hard and friendly slap on the taller boy's shoulder. Noah could tell that there was a massive, Cheshire smile on the boy's face.

"You fight good." The boy said in accented English.

"So do you." Noah replied.

The boy lifted his face mask up to reveal what Noah had expected, a massive friendly smile over a face that had been painted camouflage with dark green and black. The two boys shook hands vigorously as other Gurkhas did the same with other fallen enemies.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" The boy yelled again.

"Ayo Gorkhali!" the others shouted. Soon, the group began the long conversation filled trek down to the nearest casualty collection point to be tallied and sent back to their friendly lines. Even though they were enemies, and they fought so fiercely against each other, the Gurkhas laughed and talked as if nothing had happened. The French and Italians were so impressed by the friendly turn of events that they couldn't stay mad and the group continued friendly conversation. Even laughing at their own defeats. They knew, they had earned each other's respect.

Little did they know that on this first day of the match, dozens of similar battles had taken place all over the front line as the light forces of the second alliance collides with the heavy units of the first alliance. Along most of the frontline, which stretched from this place, twenty kilometers outside the city of Bourges, all the way to Clermont-Ferrand the heavier forces had prevailed and driven back the front line substantially. But the enemy still had a few aces up its sleeve.

* * *

_Not bad, eh? I tried to stay away from anything that would come off as offensive, but I have never been to france, nor have I met many natively French people, so my apologies if I did overstep anywhere. The same goes, and will go, for any other ethnicities that will appear in this story. Just a heads up, if it seems deliberate, then it was probably just a joke and I mean nothing by it, but I'll try to stay away from those as much as possible and address them when I do just to make sure you guys know I mean no ill will by it. If it is accidental that I get a bit racist then feel free to, in the most professional way possible, tell me about it and correct me on it. I'm aware that I probably don't have to go through all this, but I figured, why take the risk? _

_Anyway, the Gurkhas. Their reputation does indeed precede them. For those of you who are still wondering why there are Nepalese troops fighting for the British team, in France, it is not that far fetched. Gurkhas are extremely loyal. More over, they are extremely loyal to Britain. In World War Two alone over twenty three thousand Gurkhas died for a country they've never seen. Two hundred thousand Gurkhas served in World War Two under as part of the British army and they earned two thousand awards for bravery. To this day they continue to fight for Britain and they continue to scare the living shit out of just about everyone. So I don't think its a far fetched idea to have members of the Nepal Heishi-dou team participating with the British. Probably out some kind of a study abroad program. More over, the Gurkhas, even though they have served in just about every armed conflict the British have since World War Two, their accomplishments have been somewhat forgotten. I'm not entirely sure if that has changed, I remember a news piece about Gurkhas wanting to be recognized in Britain for their accomplishments and wanting rights to similar medical treatments that UK soldiers get, but I'm not sure how it played out. Either way, a fitting character to be in a veterans day post._

_And if you're wondering what their battle cry translates into, in case you haven't already found out, the whole thing translates to: "Victory to the goddess Mahakali, The Gurkhas are here!"_

_Well that's all for now. As always feel free to R&amp;R and F&amp;F. No put downs or insults, only constructive comments. And as always, Semper Fi carry on._


End file.
